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Kamala Harris Paid $1.2 Million to Firm That Sparked Sanders's Insurgency 

Harris, who is floated as potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2020, spent 60 percent of all campaign expenditures on firm

Sen. Kamala Harris / Getty Images
February 8, 2018

Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) paid $1.2 million last year to the media firm that helped boost Bernie Sanders's national profile during his 2016 Democratic primary run against Hillary Clinton, Federal Election Commission filings show.

A majority of the money sent from Harris's campaign went toward digital web advertisements despite her reelection efforts being years away.

Harris, who is regularly floated as a possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, uses Revolution Messaging LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive online media firm that won numerous awards for the work it had done for Sanders, including web advertisements, campaign consulting, videography, and website services.

During the first three quarters of 2017, which spans from Jan. 1 to Sep. 30, Kamala Harris for Senate disbursed $652,704.79 to Revolution Messaging with $567,487.2 of this amount going towards web advertisements, according to records.

Harris also paid the firm $83,000 for campaign consulting, $10,000 for website services, and $1,750 for videography services during this time.

Harris's campaign dramatically increased its expenditures to the firm during the fourth quarter, reporting disbursements of $513,866.60 for digital web ads from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31.

More than $22,000 was put towards campaign consulting while $12,000 went towards website services the last three months of 2017, the campaign's newest disclosures show.

Harris's campaign finished the year by paying Revolution $1,081,353.81 for web ads, $105,467.58 for campaign consulting, and $22,597.04 for website services. The firm pocketed $1.2 million from the campaign throughout the entire year.

In total, Harris's campaign disbursed $2,061,069.45 last year, with the $1.2 million to Revolution Messaging accounting for nearly 60 percent of its expenditures.

"Kamala Harris is dead set on running for president and the fact that she's spending seven figures to grow her name ID nationally puts to rest any speculation to the contrary," a presidential campaign veteran told the Washington Free Beacon. "She knows that there is going to be a crowded Democratic primary in 2020 with figures who have a national presence, so she needs to be spending money now to get her name in front of left-wing activists so she's not an afterthought when the campaign kicks off."

"Given that she doesn't have to run for reelection for Senate again for another five years, the only reason her campaign committee would be spending so much now, instead of building a war chest, would be to boost her ahead of a possible presidential run."

Harris's campaign has also paid thousands for rent on office space from a travel agency located on Capitol Hill, the Free Beacon previously reported. A number of her D.C. Senate staffers are also former Clinton campaign veterans.

Harris's campaign did not return a request for comment on the money spent on the media firm by press time.