July 23 2024
The video does not show Harris’ presidential ad for 2024 election; it was first posted ahead of the Democratic primary race in 2019.
Context
On July 21, U.S. President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic candidate in the 2024 U.S. presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's candidate to face Republican Donald Trump in the November election.
While Harris is yet to be formally endorsed by the party as the Democratic candidate, a campaign ad by Kamala Harris began to circulate online. On X (formerly known as Twitter), users shared the video claiming it shows Harris’ first presidential ad for the 2024 presidential election.
The video compares VP Harris to former President Donald Trump and showcases Harris’ past professional conduct. It was shared with captions like, “First official campaign ad for Kamala Harris for President! Pass it on. Kamala Harris is not just prepared to take on Trump, she's prepared to beat him.” Other users remarked, “Wow they were quick with this #KamalaHarris2024.”
However, Logically Facts found that the video dates back to 2019 and shows Harris’ advert for the Democratic primary in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
In fact
A reverse image search of some of the key frames of the footage led us to an X post by the U.S. Vice President. The post, published on November 20, 2019, shows the same footage as in the viral clip.
X post published by VP Kamala Harris on November 20, 2019, with a campaign video that matches the viral footage. (Source: X)
The campaign ad was for Harris’ bid for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2020 election.
Vice President Harris eventually dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential bid in December 2019, stating financial pressures as the cause: “My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue”, Harris said in an X post. Harris was later selected as the Vice President by the winner of the primary election and current U.S. President, Joe Biden.
Follow Logically Facts’ coverage and fact-checking of the U.S. Election 2024 here.
The verdict
The video does not show Vice President Kamala Harris’ first presidential campaign ad for the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Harris posted the video in November 2019 when running for the Democratic candidate in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Therefore, we have marked the claim as misleading.