WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris outraised Donald Trump 16-to-1 last month in Minnesota, and there’s evidence Gov. Tim Walz helped the ticket attract donations in the state and across the country, including in critical swing states.
The Harris-Walz campaign raised about $1.6 million in Minnesota in August, according to the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission. Meanwhile, the Trump-Vance campaign raised only about $106,000 in the state in August.
That lopsided fundraising contrasts with polls that show likely voters in the state narrowly preferring Harris over Trump. For instance, a MinnPost/Embold Research poll conducted in early September showed respondents favoring Harris by only a 4 percentage point margin (49% to 45%).
Hamline University political science professor David Schultz cautioned that money does not always translate into votes.
“Generally, it’s the case that if you have more money, you are going to win,” he said.
But he said today’s voters have already made up their minds about who they will support in November’s elections, and no amount of money spent on television commercials is likely to change that.
“At the end of the day, money is not the exact equivalent of electoral support,” Schultz said. “It’s not one dollar equals one vote.”
However, he added that campaign money can help in the effort to get supporters to turn out, which can be a key factor in close elections.
But having money in a war chest does help, and the Harris-Walz fundraising success has allowed the campaign to funnel money to down ballot Democrats.
Nationally, Harris raised more than triple the amount of campaign funds than Trump did in August, giving her team a massive financial advantage as the presidential race enters its final weeks.
The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee entered the final two full months of the 2024 election cycle with $286 million in the bank, compared to the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee’s $214 million, according to FEC filings.
Brendan Glavin, deputy research director at OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog, said Trump has been raising campaign cash since his first bid for the White House in 2016, and his donors may be tapped out.
“It’s been eight years of asking his donors for money, and how many times can you go back to people?” Glavin asked.
The Harris-Walz fundraising numbers in Minnesota spiked on Aug. 6, the day Harris chose Walz as her running mate. On that day, the Harris-Walz campaign raised $361,000 in Minnesota.
That was the largest amount the Democratic ticket raised from Minnesotans in a single day for all of 2024, beating the previous record of $267,000 raised on July 21, the day President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
In fact, Biden’s decision to end his bid for reelection created a rush of enthusiasm among Minnesotans who reacted by donating nearly $1.2 million to the Democratic ticket in July.
The Democratic National Convention also seems to have prompted another surge in donations by Minnesotans to the Harris-Walz campaign. Acceptance speeches from Walz and Harris on Aug. 21 and 22, respectively, coincided with another spike of $223,000 in state donations.
Schultz said the Democratic edge in fundraising could be a result of several things.
One is that Democratic fundraising had been depressed after Biden’s dismal performance against Trump in a June debate and his decision to leave the ticket reanimated donors.
“I’m wondering how much of (the surge) is making up for lost time,” Schultz said.
Schultz also said the Democratic Party has increasingly become the party of wealthier, college-educated people with more disposable income. He also said that Harris and Walz have both attracted support from corporations as well as Wall Street.
Walz helps raise money in swing states
There is other evidence that Walz, who has been deployed across the nation to appear at fundraisers, seems to be a magnet for donations across the country.
The Harris-Walz campaign announced that the day Walz was chosen as the Democrat’s vice-presidential candidate, it benefitted from a nationwide surge of donations. The campaign said it received $36 million in 24 hours after Harris announced that Walz was her pick.
The announcement also provoked a reaction in the seven swing states whose voters are likely to determine who wins the tight presidential race.
According to a MinnPost analysis of campaign finance filings, the day Walz was chosen as Harris’ running mate, her campaign saw an average increase of 500% over the average daily donation for the previous five days in the seven swing states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
The largest increase, 580%, was in Wisconsin, followed by Pennsylvania (532%), Arizona (523%), North Carolina (494%), Georgia (476%), Nevada (460%) and Michigan (447%).
Swing state donations also surged during the days Walz and Harris gave their acceptance speeches at the DNC in Chicago. There was an average 430% increase of the campaign money raised by the Harris-Walz campaign in that two-day period.
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 04:27:00
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