Harris has Financial Edge over Trump as Race enters Final Weeks

Vice President Kamala Harris significantly over former President Donald Trump in fundraising for a financial edge in August, bringing in more than three times the amount he did. This gives her campaign a substantial financial edge as the presidential race approaches its final weeks, based on the latest reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

As the 2024 election cycle enters its last two full months, the Harris campaign along with the Democratic National Committee has $286 million available, while the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have $214 million, according to the filings.

In August alone, the Harris campaign finance and the DNC raised $257 million, whereas the Trump campaign and the RNC managed to raise $85 million during the same period, the filings indicate.

Vice President Kamala Harris raised $82 million the week of the Democratic National Convention, bringing her total haul since launching her candidacy last month to $540 million, her campaign said.

The sum is bolstered by nearly $40 million raked in during and after Harris delivered her acceptance speech at the convention on Thursday night, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement, which noted the campaign crossed the half-billion-dollar mark moments before she took the stage.

O’Malley Dillon said that the hour after the vice president’s remarks was the campaign’s best fundraising hour.

In addition to growing its financial war chest, a third of which was from new donors last week, the Harris campaign also saw its foot soldiers sign up for nearly 200,000 volunteer shifts during the convention—more than any other week, O’Malley Dillon said, with 90,000 shift sign-ups coming Thursday and Friday.

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Earlier this month, both campaigns voluntarily released their total August fundraising figures that included the total figures from their joint fundraising operation with state party committees, revealing a major money edge Harris had maintained for the Democratic Party.

The Harris campaign and the DNC spent $258 million in August, almost exactly the amount they raised, and the Trump campaign and the RNC spent $121 million despite raising $85 million, the latest filings show.

Last month, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk made his largest federal political contribution to date, giving a total of $289,100 to the NRCC, the committee dedicated to supporting House GOP candidates. He did not make any contribution to the RNC or the NRSC, which focuses on Senate campaigns.

Musk had in the past given $50,000 to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s joint fundraising committee for House GOP, and $36,000 to Obama’s 2012 campaign.

Some top Republican donors who had supported former Gov. Nikki Haley during the Republican primary season are finally coming around in support of Trump, writing big checks to the main super PAC supporting Trump.

Hedge fund manager Paul E. Singer gave $5 million to Make America Great Again Inc., after serving as a vocal supporter of Haley earlier this year, according to filings. Investment banker Warren Stephens, who had given $1 million to a pro-Haley super PAC last year, gave the same amount to the pro-Trump super PAC, according to filings.

Trump’s Save America PAC’s new filing also shows that it spent nearly $2 million on legal bills in August, with one of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche, receiving more than $1 million of that sum. Other top firms paid by Save America include James Otis Law Group LLC, Habba Madaio & Associates LLP, Rober & Robert PLLC and Richard C. Klugh PA.

Notably, the Trump campaign reported a handful of small security services expenditures paid to Apocalypse Arms and Military Surplus in late July, after an assassination attempt against the former president, the latest report shows. The total amounts to $555.