Kamala Harris breaks fundraising records, takes lead over Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign team has announced they have raised $310 million for her campaign. This record-breaking amount may indicate that donors who were previously concerned about the prospects of the November elections with President Joe Biden are now generously supporting his deputy.
12:26 PM EDT, August 3, 2024
Kamala Harris, who has replaced Biden in the race for the White House, has reasons to be pleased. The amount raised by the Democratic National Committee and affiliated entities reached $310 million, significantly surpassing the results of former Republican President Donald Trump. Trump and his team and associated committees declared revenues of $138.7 million in July.
Mobilization of supporters and campaign plans
AP News quoted Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris's campaign manager, as saying she was satisfied with the results. "The tremendous outpouring of support we've seen in just a short time makes clear the Harris coalition is mobilized, growing, and ready to put in the work to defeat Trump this November," she stated.
The data published by both teams this week does not include full reports from the Federal Election Commission, which will be made available later. This makes it difficult to determine what portion of Harris’s revenues came after Biden announced on July 21 that he was stepping down from seeking re-election and endorsing Harris.
This decision came after weeks of pressure from some top Democratic donors and dozens of members of Congress, who called on the 81-year-old president to step down after his poor performance in the June 27 debate.
Nevertheless, Harris's team previously announced that they had raised over $200 million in the first week of her presidential campaign. This indicates that the lion's share of July donations came after the vice president took the top spot on the ticket.
Harris supported by numerous organizations
Since the beginning of Harris's presidential campaign, her fundraising has been supported by virtual events organized around supporters from different backgrounds, including groups like "Black Women for Harris," "Latinas for Harris," and even "White Guys for Harris." Altogether, her campaign reported that these groups have raised over $20 million.
Besides the fundraising success, Harris's team announced they have registered 170,000 new volunteers who have supported the organization of 2,300 campaign events across the country.
Harris also has other reasons to be pleased. She is ahead of Donald Trump by two percentage points, according to a YouGov poll for "The Economist." This is a significant change, as just recently, Trump was polling better than both Harris and previously Joe Biden. 46% of registered voters want to vote for Kamala Harris. Republican candidate Donald Trump can count on 44% support, according to the latest poll.
