2 months ago
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WASHINGTON: Indicative of continued enthusiasm for her candidacy despite some polls showing a slowing momentum, Kamala Harris raised $361 million in August for her
presidential election campaign
, her aides announced on Thursday, boasting of political contributions almost three times the $ 130 million Donald Trump raised in the month.
Overall, the Harris campaign has raised a staggering $615 million since she became the Democratic nominee, with $404 million still on hand compared to Trump's $295 million, already making it a billion-dollar presidential campaign with more to come.
The money spigot for Harris, backed by both retail contributors and the wealthy elites of California and New York, shows no sign of petering out even as Trump is ratcheting up his description of her as a communist. Wealthy contributors to the Harris campaign include Linked-in's Reid Hoffman, Disney Studio's Jeffrey Katzenberg and investor George Soros.
While Trump has his own set of fat-cats bankrolling his campaign, including
Elon Musk
, the world's wealthiest man and banking fortune heir Timothy Mellon, both sides are also milking rank and file voters, claiming greater grassroots support.
The Harris campaign said the August contributions came from nearly 3 million donors, including 1.3 million voters who gave for the first time this cycle. More than 60% of August donors were women and almost one-fifth of donors were registered Republicans or independents, the campaign revealed. Among the new donors, 3 in 4 had not given to Biden’s campaign during the 2020 presidential race.
On its part, the Trump campaign said 98% of the $130 million it raised in August came in the form of donations under $200 with an average donation of $56. Trump has also been raising money hawking tacky merchandize, from gold-color sneakers to trading cards to even pieces of the suit he wore for his debate with Biden.
Most of the lolly will be spent in the seven battleground states, with Pennsylvania and Georgia expected to suck up the most money as the two candidates buy up airtime to bombard voters with ads trashing their opponent more than talking up their credentials. Already, some of the online ads from the Harris side portray Trump as an imbecile, while Trump ads paint a dark, apocalyptic picture of America under "Comrade Kamala."
In Pennsylvania, whose 19 electoral votes is expected to be crucial to reach the 270 needed to win the White House, the Harris campaign has already spent more than $50 million at a burn rate of $10 million a week, according to local reports. The Harris campaign also boasts of a superior ground game with more offices, personnel, and volunteers compared to the more organic support Trump has in middle America.
Despite this, Trump is enjoying more visibility in the media by virtue of more public appearances, even though most of his speeches are characteristically unhinged, replete with falsehoods and meaningless blather. His appearance before the Economic Club of New York on Thursday featuring a laughably meaningless response to a question on childcare, became the butt of jokes spawning a scores of memes and cartoons.
Such speeches characterized as "dumpster fires" by critics who see more spectacle than substance in them, nevertheless keep him in the news cycle, giving him millions of dollars of free mileage which his adorning MAGA base laps up.
