The Establishment candidate fails to convince voters

Kamala Harris has been, from the beginning, the Establishment candidate. This has been so since Democratic leaders began to question Joe Biden's candidacy, given the obvious signs of his mental decline. In a lightning-fast coup, they sidelined the current president and eliminated any potential alternative candidates, aided by the invaluable help of the reluctance of the big names in the party. Once in the race, Harris' fundraising figures have been triple those of Donald Trump, as has her spending on political ads. However, her electoral hopes continue to sink poll after poll, and more and more projections are placing the Republican back in the White House.

And the fact is that Kamala Harris never had the support of the voters, not even when she ran in the primaries in 2020, when she was a semi-unknown, beyond being considered the most radical senator in the country and a former progressive attorney general in California. Nor did she exactly improve her rating throughout the four years of her vice presidency, in which she always came out worse even than Biden in the polls.

More than $1 billion raised since the Harris and Democratic Establishment coup

Those who do want her are those who want to maintain the status quo. The Establishment, or Deep State, as Trump calls it, which sees Kamala as the best option, and to that end has not hesitated to open the checkbooks. According to NBC, since the coup against Biden, Harris has raised more than $1 billion, adding what was received by PACs affiliated with the campaign. In September alone, her team's funds tripled those of her Republican rival ($221.8 million versus $62.7 million). With the president at the helm of the Democratic ticket, both candidacies were even in terms of fundraising.

Curiously, for someone who is running as the candidate of the poor and the representative of the humble, it´s the billionaires that are devoted to her cause. With notable exceptions such as Elon Musk, most of the country's richest people are Kamala Harris donors. According to Forbes, at least 79 of them have contributed money in various amounts to help her get to the White House.

The Gates family, great patrons of Kamala Harris

Among them, the contributions of the Gates family stand out. The Microsoft founder's ex-wife, Melinda, has become one of Kamala's biggest donors, with contributions of around $13 million. In addition, according to The New York Times, Bill Gates, who has traditionally kept his distance from any candidate, has donated $50 million to the Democratic campaign. The disbursement would have been made to Future Forward, the leading outside fundraising group supporting the Democratic candidate.

Although Gates has not expressly acknowledged making this move, he did indicate to the NYT that "this election is different" and recalled that he has always supported "candidates who demonstrate a clear commitment to improving health care, reducing poverty and fighting climate change in the United States and around the world."

Spielberg, Blomberg among billionares who donated at leas $1 million to Harris

Forbes identified 28 other business leaders who have contributed at least $1 million to the Democratic campaign or related groups. Among them are Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg, former mayor of New York), John Pritzker (Hyatt hotels), Haim Saban (Fox Family Channel), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook) and Eric Schmidt (Google).

Much of the money raised has been invested to make the candidate known among voters through political ads. It has been an expensive investment, but necessary given Kamala Harris' allergy to interviews. She was initially unwilling to grant interviews, then once she began to do more press, the side effects of her mistakes during these appearances have caused her to plummet in the polls.

Trump spending more effectively than Harris

According to FEC data, Kamala Harris' campaign spent about $270 million over the past month, predominately on advertising spots. Trump, meanwhile, invested $78 million in that time period. For electoral purposes, however, every penny invested by the Republican has been infinitely more profitable than the Democrat's open tap, according the latest polls, which show how the former president has cut the vice president's lead, and causing several left-leaning media polls to project him as the winner for the first time.