The News
Kamala Harris is soundly beating Donald Trump in fundraising, campaign finance records show, even as the two presidential candidates remain deadlocked in polls ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Trump, who won in 2016 despite being outspent, is likely to rely on big money donors to outside groups supporting his candidacy.
Harris’ campaign raised a record-breaking $1 billion in the three months after announcing her candidacy — the fastest any candidate has raised so much — including $222 million raised in September alone. Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, got $63 million in donations in September, according to records released by the Federal Election Commission Sunday. The margin by which Harris’ campaign outspent Trump last month was nearly identical to the margin by which she out-raised him, according to The New York Times.
The stakes of the election are intensifying campaign finance operations: Billionaire Elon Musk this weekend began awarding $1 million per day to anyone who pledged support to his super political action committee that is campaigning on behalf of Trump, a strategy that some experts believe could be violating electoral laws. The Tesla founder has already given around $75 million to his pro-Trump super PAC.
SIGNALS
‘Dark money’ political contributions raise issue of transparency
For years, wealthy political donors have favored using nonprofit groups with fewer disclosure requirements, resulting in “a surge of dark money into American politics,” a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigation found. Experts say such firms can cloud public knowledge of who is funding each campaign. In Pennsylvania alone, wealthy donors have given more than $85 million to so-called “dark money” groups, the investigation found. Obscuring campaign donations’ sources is a “real problem,” a campaign finance reform activist told the outlet, particularly in a political climate where voters on both sides are suspicious about money in politics.
Trump team gets creative in response to cash crunch
Compared to 2020, the Trump campaign is struggling to mobilize small donors who give less than $200, according to The Associated Press. In response, his team is deploying “aggressive and creative accounting strategies” to free up money, The New York Times reported — most notably by offloading payroll for the majority of his campaign staff to other Republican Party groups and allies. Outside groups are restricted in their ability to coordinate with campaigns, but recent regulatory rulings have made it easier to rely on them for tasks like get-out-the-vote operations: Trump has relied on this strategy to the extent that he may be “bending the rules to their breaking point,” a campaign finance watchdog told the Times.
Small donors are crucial for Harris campaign
Some 41% of funding for Harris’ campaign in August came from small donors, according to British news site Tortoise, about 10 percentage points more than Trump’s campaign. Having a higher ratio of small donors is crucial since they “are more likely to do other campaign work,” said a former director for a Democratic donation platform. The Harris campaign is mobilizing these donors to work phone centers and conduct door-knocking programs in crucial swing states like Pennsylvania. Harris’ war chest is also being used to target younger voters: Her campaign has spent about $54 million over the last three months on social media ads, compared to $6 million spent by the Trump campaign.