The GOP posted another strong fundraising month in June, with the Republican National Committee reporting its best fundraising month in years, as Donald Trump surpassed President Biden’s once-enormous campaign cash advantage.
The RNC raised more than $66 million in June, according to filings submitted Saturday night to the Federal Election Commission. That sum marks the highest amount raised for the committee since late 2020, when Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in that year’s election propelled hundreds of millions of dollars of giving in a matter of weeks.
The RNC also reported a war chest of $102 million at the end of June, nearly double the amount of cash on hand reported at the end of May. The Democratic National Committee reported late Saturday that it had raised $39 million and reported $78 million in cash at the end of June.
The Republican Party’s fundraising momentum is an ominous sign for Democrats. The June reports only capture a few days of fundraising after Biden struggled through a June 27 debate with Trump, which increased doubts among many Democratic lawmakers about whether he can be effective and defeat the former president if he remains at the top of the ticket.
Though the Biden campaign claimed it raised $38 million in the four days after the Atlanta debate faceoff, Biden’s faltering performance sent ripples of panic through the Democratic Party — leading some high-dollar donors to say they were pausing their giving to outside groups that pay for many of the ads to boost Biden’s candidacy and attack Trump. The potential dip in resources this monthfor the Biden campaign and its allies will not show up on FEC reports until August.
The Biden campaign said it raised $127 million in June, while the Trump campaign said it had raised $111.8 million over the same period. The Trump campaign’s reports filed Saturday night showed that it has about $285 million in the bank, while the Biden campaign had about $240 million in cash on handacross its allied committees, including the Democratic National Committee.
Many Democrats are worried that large-dollar donations to Biden’s effort have dropped precipitously as Biden has weighed calls for him to abandon his reelection bid.
A dozen Democrats, including two senators, called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race Friday — making it the largest single-day wave of such calls since the debate. Thirty-seven congressional Democrats have said he should step aside.
As the number of lawmakers calling on Biden to bow out has risen, the president has also heard directly from allies such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who warned him that his candidacy could sink Democratic hopes of taking back the House, as well as former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) who urged him to take a more clear-eyed look at his slippage in key swing state polls.
Major Democratic donors, who see the possibility of defeating Trump slipping away, are also moving quickly to map out alternative scenarios, including an attempt by some to begin the process of vetting potential vice-presidential candidates who could serve alongside Vice President Harris, should she replace Biden as the party’s nominee.
In June, FF PAC — a main super PAC aligned with Biden that intends to spend heavily on ads — raised $33 million, driven by a $15 million influx from a separate Future Forward nonprofit. That outpaced the $23.5 million raised by MAGA Inc., the major super PAC aligned with Trump.
Major FF PAC donors in June also included George Soros’s Democracy PAC, which gave $5 million, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Reid Hoffman, who gave $3 million, and James and Kathryn Murdoch, who together gave $1 million.
MAGA Inc’s fundraising was driven by gifts of $5 million each from businessman Robert Bigelow, WWE co-founder Linda McMahon and the tobacco company RAI Services.
Source link : https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/20/fundraising-july-election-trump-biden/
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Publish date : 2024-07-20 23:50:13
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