Kamala Harris' Arizona rally attendees were not paid actors

Context

On August 9, presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her VP pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, held a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona. The public meeting was attended by more than 15,000 people, one of the largest crowds in the campaign yet. Following the event, numerous unverified claims emerged as opponents attempted to downplay the support the Democratic presidential nominee received. Users on social media, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, quickly declared the photos of the event as fake — a claim that Logically Facts has already debunked.

Concurrently, posts calling out Harris and Walz for hiring actors to attend the rally have surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) (archived here, here, and here) and Threads (archived here). Some of those have garnered millions of views in less than a week. Social media users claim that "It's being reported that EVERY SINGLE person at the Kamala rally was paid, carefully vetted, and the majority were flown in" (archived here and here). The Democrats are alleged to have concealed the truth, as the event was supposedly "invite only and not open to the public." Some posts claim that the attendees were forced to bring ID to confirm they were on the list, jokingly adding that Kamala's rallies are more secure than the elections. Others (archived here) have shared a photo of an ad from Craigslist with the headline "Actors needed (Phoneix Convention Center)." The ad offers people 15$ an hour to participate in "protest activity and holding signs that are anti-Trump." 

In fact

The Craigslist ad cited in these claims is outdated and unrelated to the Harris rally. Although the ad does not have a listing date, it has previously appeared on social media multiple times, for example, on Facebook in 2019. Thus, it was written years before the event and has no credible evidence linking it to Harris, her campaign, or the latest rally in Arizona.

The falsified nature of the post is also confirmed by the location mentioned in the ad. The Democrats' rally, at which Harris and Walz appeared, took place at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale. It is located 18 miles from the Phoenix Convention Center, which is mentioned in the ad.

Similar ads have circulated previously. AZ Central covered one in August 2017, while Reuters addressed a fabricated screenshot circulating online in June 2020. Craigslist ads offering payment for attendance at political events are not uncommon, but they are typically associated with smaller, local events and are often posted by independent groups. In this case, the ad does not support the claim that the Harris campaign was involved in paying actors to partake in the rally. This was confirmed to PolitiFact by a Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson, who said their "campaign does not pay people to attend rallies, including the recent rally in Arizona."

Many other publications, including PolitiFact, Sportskeeda, Times Now News, and Reuters, have previously debunked the claim.  

The verdict

The claim that the crowd at Kamala Harris's Arizona rally was made up of paid actors is false. The Craigslist ad being used as evidence is from August 2017. The rally was held at Desert Diamond Arena, not in the venue stated in the ad. There is no substantiated proof that attendees were compensated for their presence.