Since Kamala Harris announced she would seek the Democratic presidential nomination and formally took over President Joe Biden’s campaign committee on July 21, she’s been outspending Republican nominee Donald Trump by astronomical margins on nearly everything.

That includes print and promo.

Between July 21 and Sept. 30, Harris’ official campaign spent more than 40 times what Trump did on print and promo during that same time span – $3.44 million for the Democrat compared to Trump’s $82,026, according to an exclusive ASI Research analysis of public campaign finance documents.

When Biden withdrew his reelection bid in July, he transferred ownership and funds of the “Biden for President” campaign committee to Harris, at which time it was renamed “Harris for President.”

Prior to that transfer, Biden had spent $1.4 million on print and promo since the launch of his reelection campaign. Added to Harris’ spending since then – including a whopping $2.6 million in September alone – the Democrats’ promo expenditures for the 2024 election cycle now total nearly $4.9 million through September, the most recent month for which the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has filings available.

In comparison, Trump’s official campaign committee has spent $944,647 on collateral so far, the term used by political campaigns for print and promo. There’s still a month of spending to account for before Election Day, but that’s a huge decrease from the $11 million he allocated to promo in 2020.

And Harris’ higher promo spend isn’t only due to her campaign’s greater spending in general – she’s also allocated a higher percentage of overall funds to print and promo than Trump.

The straight dollar figure that Biden and Harris combined spent on print and promo through September is also more than double Biden’s total promo spending during the 2020 election – and also well over double the percentage of the Democrats’ overall spend that year.

As it did for Biden when he was in the race, promo is playing a sizable role for Harris – a sharp turn from the previous two presidential elections when Trump significantly outspent his opponents on merch.

(Source: ASI Research Analysis of Federal Election Commission Filings)
*Includes expenditures by both Biden for President and Harris for President campaign committees.

Rapid Spending for Harris

Harris’ promo spending since replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee mirrors how her campaign has spent elsewhere. In September, the Harris campaign spent a whopping $270 million compared to the Trump campaign’s $77.6 million in disbursements, according to just-released FEC filings – and heightened promo spend during the election run-up made up almost 1.3% of Harris’ massive spending bill last month.

This election cycle is forecasted to be among the most expensive in history, with experts projecting nearly $16 billion in costs across all candidates and races. And Harris has had to condense what’s normally a months- or even years-long endeavor into just about 100 days, resulting in a massive spike in spending since she took over the campaign.

With promo, the Democrats essentially had to stock their merch store and wares at rallies twice over, as existing Biden-Harris gear became obsolete – a fact that was likely a major contributor to increased campaign promo spending.

What resulted was a rapid mobilization of print and promo companies across the U.S. to produce merch from yard signs to T-shirts quickly, both after Harris announced her candidacy as well as after she announced her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“Prior to July 21, there was no literature, no material, no palm cards with Kamala Harris’ name on it. Not one,” said Donna Brazile, a leading Democratic strategist, at the recent ASI Power Summit during a keynote on the election. “All of this stuff you’re seeing now has been made up over the last 100 days. It’s been a hell of a ride.”

Hype for the Harris-Walz campaign has spawned trendy “moment merch” – like the viral camo hats from promo supplier Unionwear (asi/73775) – that capitalized on significant moments from the road to Election Day.

And more generally, because Harris has only been a presidential candidate since July, almost any merch is new merch to her supporters, meaning that there’s more opportunity for her campaign and storefront to make sales. Especially during the last weeks before the election, that’s something her campaign is certainly trying to capitalize on.

Less of a Focus for Trump?

Trump’s promo plays, in contrast, have been a mainstay in the political realm – and a critical part of his election branding – for almost a decade. The former president’s use of promotional products has played a key role in expanding the importance of collateral in campaign marketing and political branding throughout the past decade. “Make America Great Again” hats have become so synonymous with Trump and his supporter base that he recently released a version imprinted with a picture of a “MAGA” cap.

The Trump campaign is selling $40 Little Red MAGA Hat hat that shows a MAGA hat on a hat. pic.twitter.com/sOMTAwT7YE

— Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) October 10, 2024

The caps’ status as political symbols, however – and the length of Trump’s career in the presidential election spotlight – may mean that many of his supporters who would purchase such items already have done so. That would explain in part this year’s lower spending.

Trump is also running a smaller campaign than four years ago in terms of spending and personnel, according to Politico. Earlier this year, it was reported that the former president paid over $100 million in legal fees, and it’s possible he doesn’t have the same financial flexibility to spend as lavishly as he previously did on promo.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from running with a variety of branded deals (many of them expensive) outside of his official campaign committee and storefront.

In September, for example, he announced collections of Trump watches – one of which retailed for $100,000 – and Trump-designed silver coins. Other summer announcements included Trump-branded Bibles, cologne and NFT trading cards that CBS News estimates generated $7.2 million for the former president.

Some of these external websites note that sales are “not political” and have “nothing to do with any political campaign” – leading to ambiguity about both whether these merch expenses come out of campaign funds, and where profits from these items do go toward.

Trump has also lost the fundraising advantage that his campaign had over the Democrats early in the election cycle, though it’s possible that he’s leaning more on the super PACs he’s aligned with instead of contributions to the official campaign committee. In the second quarter, reports from both campaigns illustrated that Trump had outraised Biden $331 million to $264 million from April to June.

But since Harris replaced Biden as the presumptive nominee, she’s reportedly fundraised a record $1 billion between her official campaign and affiliated political action committees, giving her campaign the cash advantage in the weeks before the election. According to the FEC, the Trump campaign ended September with $119.7 million cash on hand compared to Harris’ $187.5 million – and that’s after her explosive spending run last month compared with his more conservative one.

Trump also spent much more on promo early in the campaign than his Democratic counterparts. His highest total month in the category came last July, when campaign filings show he spent more than $200,000 on collateral. By November, Biden still hadn’t cracked $10,000 in total promo spend.

But in the months since, Biden – and now Harris – continue to increase that amount. August, Harris’ first full month with ownership of the campaign committee, had a promo total of more than $600,000 for the Democratic nominee. In September, that amount exploded even further to nearly $2.6 million – more than what the campaign had spent on print and promo in the 13 months prior, combined.

PACs and Companies

These FEC filing totals, though, only include spending by Harris and Trump’s official campaigns, not unofficial merch vendors or associated political action committees (PACs) – which often serve as main fundraising arms for high-level campaigns.

Including promo spending from the largest presidential-supporting PACs causes overall election promo numbers to skyrocket by millions – especially for Harris.

The Harris Victory Fund – one of the Harris campaign’s primary PACs, formerly the Biden Victory Fund – has allocated more than $25 million in 2024 to merchandise, at least in part to stock Harris’ official campaign store.

And, in line with Harris’ spending trends, more than $22 million of that came between July 21 and Sept. 30, an ASI analysis of the group’s quarterly FEC filings found.

Austin, TX-based distributor Bumperactive (asi/150095) received almost all of that business, both from Biden before the transfer (it was one of his larger promo sources, both with campaign and PAC funds) and from the Harris Victory Fund since July 21.

Between that date and Sept. 30, the Harris Victory Fund expensed almost $15.5 million in merch to Bumperactive directly. The PAC also paid about $2.25 million to the Democratic National Committee, who then spent that exact sum at Bumperactive – bringing the business total to almost $18 million to the distributor in just the past few months.

Other notable promo expenses for the PAC included more than $2.2 million to Wisconsin-based Union First Laser Technologies and almost $200,000 to Hedley & Bennett, the kitchen gear retailer that produced Harris-Walz camo aprons last month.

OMG. If you loved the iconic camo #HarrisWalz2024 cap, now they've got an apron coming soon. Just take my money! pic.twitter.com/PQXtH6fh6e

— Mark Joyella 🩷💜💙 (@standupkid) September 20, 2024

Outside of PACs, Harris has used many of the same top promo vendors as Biden. Of 56 different vendors contracted by Harris, Minuteman Press tops her official campaign’s promo spending list so far, with nearly $1.1 million in business. Garner Printing, Kennedy Printing Co., PDQ Gill’s Printing (asi/292244), J&R Graphics and Printing (asi/232842), Accurate Business Systems (asi/102932) and Raff Printing Inc. are all among vendors that have overlapped between their campaigns.

In contrast, almost all of Trump’s promo spending has gone to either Drummond Press (asi/304121) or Ace Specialties (asi/103553). The latter, a Lafayette, LA-based distributor, is the original source of the “MAGA” hat and has been one of Trump’s top promo partners during all three elections in which he’s run – and also a top Republican vendor in this election, according to election tracking nonprofit Open Secrets.

That’s the case for Trump-supporting PACs as well. Between three of Trump’s main fundraising committees – Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, Save America and the Trump National Committee JFC – more than $8.7 million has been expensed to Ace Specialties since the beginning of 2023.

Combined with an additional $3.3 million paid to WinRed Technical Services – the platform on which Trump’s main campaign merch store is operated – that totals roughly $12 million in PAC election promo spending.