Washington: Indicative of continued enthusiasm for her candidacy despite some polls showing a slowing momentum, Kamala Harris raised $361 million in Aug for her presidential election campaign, her aides announced, 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 and banking fortune heir Timothy Mellon, both sides are also milking rank and file voters, claiming greater grassroots support.
The Harris campaign said the Aug contributions came from nearly 3 million donors, including 1.3 million voters who gave for the first time this cycle. More than 605 of Aug donors were women and almost one-fifth of donors were registered Republicans or independents, the campaign revealed.
Among the new donors, 3 in 4 hadn’t given to Biden’s campaign during the 2020 prez race.
On its part, the Trump campaign said 98% of the $130 million it raised in Aug came in the form of donations under $200 with an average donation of $56. Trump has also been raising money hawking tacky merchandise, from gold-colour sneakers to trading cards to even pieces of the suit he wore for his debate with Prez Biden.
