Kamala Harris raked in $361 million last month, widening her cash advantage over Donald Trump with what the vice president’s campaign described as the best grassroots fundraising month in presidential history.
Harris’ haul nearly tripled the $130 million brought in by the former president during the same period, as the campaigns have turned toward the final fall finish. Harris’ campaign and other affiliated committees have $404 million in cash on hand, a $100 million advantage over Trump’s nearly $300 million war chest, according to figures released by both campaigns this week.
August marked Harris’ first full month as the Democratic Party presidential nominee and included the party’s national convention in Chicago. Her campaign said she’s raised more than $615 million since she took over the top of the ticket in late July.
Harris’ continued fundraising success represents a reversal of fortunes for Democrats, who saw their financial edge disappear when Trump overtook President Joe Biden after the former president’s New York conviction in late May. But Harris’ replacement of Biden atop the Democratic ticket in July triggered an unprecedented cascade of donations for the new nominee.
Flush with cash, the Harris campaign has pumped enormous sums into political advertising, swamping the airwaves with $370 million worth of TV and digital ads from Labor Day through Election Day. But she’s also invested nearly $25 million into down-ballot races, an earlier and bigger investment in other campaigns than the top of the ticket has done in recent years.
Full financial filings covering August — which will include more details on how campaigns are spending and raising their money — for campaigns and party committees are due Sept. 20.
The campaign particularly touted its small-dollar fundraising, announcing that last month marked its strongest performance with grassroots giving to date. The campaign said that 1.3 million first-time donors gave in August. They also promoted the demographics of those grassroots donors, including that 60 percent of all donors in August were women and a fifth of them were registered Republicans or independents.
“In just a short time, Vice President Harris’ candidacy has galvanized a history-making, broad, and diverse coalition — with the type of enthusiasm, energy, and grit that wins close elections,” said Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Harris’ campaign manager, in a statement released with the fundraising totals on Friday. “With the undeniable, organic support we are seeing, we are making sure we are doing everything possible to mobilize our coalition to defeat Donald Trump once and for all.”
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