Money alone doesn’t win elections, but it helps a lot. And this month, the Democratic campaign for the US presidential election has more than generous support: its coffers received 310 million dollars. [cerca de 284 millones de euros] throughout July. Two-thirds of that amount, more than $200 million, has been collected in the first week since President Joe Biden withdrew from re-election and was replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris. The amount is more than double what was collected by Republican rivals in the same month, $139 million.
The surge in funding since July 21 (the day Biden withdrew) is an indicator of the enthusiasm of Democratic donors, who in the final weeks before Biden’s resignation had been reluctant to contribute more funds to what they feared had become a lost cause against Donald Trump.
That trend has now turned 180 degrees. Harris’s campaign says it has $377 million in its coffers, a figure that far exceeds the $327 million that her Republican rival’s campaign said it had at the start of August. Former President Trump’s fundraising was boosted last month by the attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania, the nomination of Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential candidate and the holding of the Republican convention.
Democrats say two-thirds of their July revenue came from first-time donors, with the vast majority of money coming in small amounts from ordinary citizens. Sixty percent of donors were women, and the number of contributions from people under 30 increased tenfold.
“The tremendous outpouring of support we’ve seen in a very short period of time makes it clear that Harris’ coalition is motivated, growing, and ready to work to defeat Trump this November,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Our money is going to work that wins close races.”
Adding to the enthusiasm of Democratic supporters are polls indicating that Harris is gaining ground in voting intention and is hot on the heels of – or even surpassing – her Republican rival, who in July had managed to distance herself beyond the margin of error in the polls. A poll published on Friday and prepared by the firm Civiqs concludes that the vice president has 49% of voting intention, while Trump reaches 45%. The average prepared by the digital RealClearPolitics between the different national polls gives the Republican 47.7%, a difference of 1.2 percentage points over the Democrat, who reaches 45.5%. The website specialized in analyzing political statistics FiveThirtyEight maintains that today Harris leads Trump by 1.3 percentage points, 44.9% versus 43.6%.
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Harris’ campaign could receive a new injection of enthusiasm in the coming days. The vice president will be officially proclaimed candidate next Monday, when the formal voting of the Democratic delegates that began on Thursday will end. It is expected that she will announce her running mate that same day, days before the Democratic Party opens its convention in Chicago on August 19.
The law firm that has been investigating potential Democratic vice presidential candidates has already concluded its work and has submitted its reports to Harris, who will finish interviewing her possible number twos this weekend. All the finalists are in the running for Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania – a state that Democrats need to win at all costs to remain in the White House in the next term – and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and war veteran.
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