When Beyoncé Knowles appeared at a campaign rally for Kamala Harris in Houston days before the election, the pop superstar declared she was there not as a politician or a celebrity. "I’m here as a mother," she said.
But the $165,000 that Knowles’s production company, Parkwood Production Media, received from the Harris campaign may have had something to do with it.
That payment is part of a massive spending spree that Team Harris made to pay celebrities, musicians, and other influencers in the homestretch of her ill-fated presidential run. The campaign paid $75,000 to Thrill Hill Productions, the production company of rocker Bruce Springsteen. Harris’s campaign also paid $20,000 to Sneaker Addict Touring, the company of rapper Fat Joe, and $211,000 to Ganesha Touring, the company of singer Ricky Martin. The campaign paid another $145,000 to W.L.L. & Associates, the manager of rapper 2 Chainz, and $178,000 to RMS Music Group, the company of norteño band Los Tigres del Norte.
Then there was a Team Kamala payment of $20,000 to Philly Cuts, a black-owned barbershop in Philadelphia, where Harris sat for a 10-minute roundtable discussion to promote her "opportunity agenda for black men."
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