According to the vice president’s campaign officials, $361 million was raised in August, far exceeding the $130 million Donald Trump announced he had earned in the same month.
Since Kamala Harris entered the race for the White House On July 21, donations to finance the Democratic campaign continued to flow in. They reached such a sum that by early September, they were almost three times larger than those collected by the 45th President of the United States. Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, September 4, the Republican candidate’s team announced that it had received $130 million* in donations during the month of August, bringing the remaining budget in the party’s coffers to $295 million.
Two days later, the Democratic camp countered that it had received $361 million in the last month of the summer period. The current vice president thus has $404 million in cash at the beginning of September. The total of these funds collected in August is almost identical to the $364 million collected in August 2020 by the campaign of Joe Biden.
A widening gap
In total, the Democratic camp’s coffers have a $110 million lead over the Republican camp. The two candidates are expected to break records and spend more than a billion dollars during this campaign. This money is mainly used by the two candidates to broadcast advertisements and set up voting operations in the “Swing States”, which decide the outcome of each election.
Such a gap can be explained by several factors. First, August was the first month that Kamala Harris spent as the Democratic candidate, after Joe Biden withdrew. This snap nomination gave her a significant wave of support of illustrious figures of the Democratic Party, and even several Republicans.
It was also in August that the Democrats held their investiture convention over four days at Chicago. This grand celebration, which is supposed to officially inaugurate the current vice president, is above all a major marketing tool that is generally used to raise funds. Indeed, Kamala Harris’ team announced that it had raised some $82 million during the convention alone. August is also the best month of the 2024 campaign for Democrats.
Tough harvest for Donald Trump
While Democrats are drowning in donations, Republicans led by Donald Trump are struggling to receive them. Typically, campaigns raise increasingly larger sums each month leading up to the election. However, the $130 million raised by Donald Trump’s teams in August is significantly less than the $139 million raised the previous month by the Republican ticket. In addition, this sum in August is much less than the sum the billionaire raised in August 2020 ($210 million), which did not allow him to win the presidency.
The Republican candidate had already been behind Joe Biden since the start of the 2024 campaign, even before the current president withdrew. However, this gap was closed shortly after the Republican inauguration that installed the billionaire in the spring. The Democrats still managed to rebuild their lead after the change of top candidate at the end of July.
However, we notice that Donald Trump has been fading away lately, no longer organizing fundraisers and mainly delegating all receptions and dinners to his running mate, the senator from Ohio. JD Vance. After his highly anticipated debate With Kamala Harris on September 10, Donald Trump is expected to headline three fundraisers, revealed THE New York Times who obtained copies of invitations. The New York daily reports that one of them is scheduled for Salt Lake Cityanother one to Los Angeles and the last one in the Silicon Valley.
New Donors for Kamala Harris
Another important statistic that Kamala Harris’ campaign committee has released is who is giving. Indeed, three-quarters of the Democratic candidate’s 1.3 million donors in August did not contribute to the last presidential election in 2020. Officials also say that in that same month, more than six in 10 donors were women and that one in five donors were registered Republicans or no party.
Still, polls show the race is still very tight in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. Additionally, candidates typically spend campaign money closer to Election Day, devoting any remaining funds to final ads or voter mobilization efforts.
*The amounts given include money raised by allied party committees, but do not include funds raised by outside groups supporting each candidate. Also, remember that the exact amounts raised and held by campaigns and party committees will not be official until campaign finance reports are released in mid-September.
