The enthusiasm that Kamala Harris’ candidacy has aroused is also measured in cash. The Democrat has smashed the historical records of donations to an electoral campaign by raising 540 million dollars (482 million euros at the current exchange rate) in just over a month since she took over from Joe Biden to run for president, according to the president of her campaign, Jen O’Malley Dillon, on Sunday. Harris has taken advantage of the momentum of the Democratic convention to increase her lead over Republican Donald Trump.
The money tap had been turned off for Joe Biden, as donors were skeptical about his chances of continuing in the White House after the disastrous debate on June 27. However, it opened in torrents as soon as the changeover took place. Harris already broke a first record with 81 million dollars raised in the first 24 hours (72 million euros) since the current vice president was named as a candidate. The injection of funds has continued in what promises to be the most expensive electoral campaign in the history of the United States.
“The excitement and energy in the air at the United Center this week was palpable, but that excitement extended far beyond Chicago, across the battleground states that will decide this election,” O’Malley Dillon wrote in a message posted Sunday. Harris’ campaign chairwoman said that on Thursday evening, just before the nominee’s acceptance speech, the campaign surpassed the $500 million mark. “Immediately after her speech, we hit our highest hour of fundraising since launch day,” she added, without providing a specific figure. The figures reflect the totals raised by Harris for President, the Democratic National Committee and the joint fundraising committees.
Conventions are key fundraising moments for parties, which take advantage of the high media exposure to intensify their fundraising offensive, with a bombardment of emails and other actions to raise money.
New donors
The campaign manager also points out that a third of this week’s donations came from new contributors and that almost a fifth of those who contributed for the first time were young voters and two-thirds of them were women, two groups that could be decisive in November. Teachers and nurses also remain among the most common occupations of donors.
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Advertising spending for the 2024 election campaign is on track to break records. Donald Trump is also raising funds at a brisk pace from large and small donors. He had managed to offset Joe Biden’s initial lead, but has now been overtaken by his new rival. His campaign announced earlier this month that it had raised $138.7 million in July, but that is less than what Harris managed in the first week since taking over from Biden. At the beginning of August, Trump’s campaign had $327 million in cash.
Harris will close this month with $150 million in television ad spending, according to the report shared by O’Malley Dillon. Starting from Labor Day, Monday, September 2, and running through Election Day, November 5, in what is traditionally considered the final stretch of the campaign, Harris already has $370 million in television and digital bookings. “This fall buy includes the largest digital booking in the history of American politics, reflecting the campaign’s commitment to meeting voters where they are,” says the campaign chairwoman.
Harris’ campaign says there has also been a surge in volunteer support for the vice president thanks to the convention, with nearly 200,000 new shifts booked since Monday, which is how campaigners’ commitment is measured. “On Thursday and Friday alone, volunteers signed up for 90,000 shifts, motivated by the extraordinary anticipation generated by the vice president’s speech,” says O’Malley Dillon.
Back to the campaign trail
After a weekend of respite, during which neither Harris nor Trump had any public events, both will return to the campaign trail next week. The next big event is the televised debate on September 10 on the ABC network, but before that the parties will return to campaigning in the decisive states, those that will decide the election.
Harris and her vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will begin a bus tour of southern Georgia, one of the key swing states, on Wednesday to appeal to rural, suburban and urban Georgians, with a large proportion of black voters and working-class families. The vice president will hold a rally on Thursday night in Savannah.
Trump, for his part, will speak on Monday at the National Guard Association conference in Detroit, Michigan, another decisive state, where the former president won in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and lost in 2020 to Biden. It will be Trump’s sixth visit to that state this year.
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