How the Democrats Spent $1 Billion and Still Lost

She took in more than $1.2 billion in contributions. Her donors numbered in the millions, including many new to the political process. But in the end, it didn’t matter.

Vice President Kamala Harris lost her bid for the White House on Wednesday despite spending most of the funds on an expansive ground operation, staffing and a flood of ads. President-elect Donald Trump won a second term with half of what Harris’s campaign spent.

Harris’s fundraising dominance, which her campaign had touted, wasn’t enough to overcome political headwinds, including shifts in demographic support and an economic malaise that left much of the electorate soured on the Biden administration in which she served.