Harris campaign says it raised more than 300 million dollars in July
2 August 2024, 11:54
The haul by US Vice President Kamala Harris outpaced Donald Trump whose campaign said they took in 138.7 million dollars (£109 million) for the month.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign announced on Friday that it raised $310 million last month.
The haul by Ms Harris, the Democratic National Committee and affiliated entities far outpaced Republican former president Donald Trump, whose campaign and assorted committees said they took in 138.7 million dollars (£109 million) for July.
The vice president’s campaign also says it entered August with 377 million dollars (£296 million) in cash on hand, which it described as the most for any presidential candidate at this point in the cycle. It was also well above the 327 million dollars (£256 million) Mr Trump’s team announced having to start the month.
“The tremendous outpouring of support we’ve seen in just a short time makes clear the Harris coalition is mobilised, growing, and ready to put in the work to defeat Trump this November,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.
“Our money is going to the work that wins close elections.”
Mr Trump’s totals for July were augmented by an assassination attempt against the former president during a rally in Pennsylvania, which galvanised some of his fiercest supporters, and by his subsequent revealing of his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Ms Harris’s team, meanwhile, is hoping for another jolt early next week, when she is expected to announce her own running mate, and during the Democratic convention, which opens in Chicago on August 19.
The figures released by both campaigns this week do not include full Federal Elections Commission filings, which will come later this month. That makes it difficult to determine how much of Ms Harris’s haul came after President Joe Biden announced on July 21 that he was abandoning his re-election bid and endorsing Ms Harris.
That decision followed weeks of some top Democratic donors, as well as dozens of members of Congress, urging the 81-year-old president to step aside after his dismal debate performance on June 27.
Still, Ms Harris’s team had previously announced that it took in more than 200 million dollars (£157 million) during her first week as a presidential candidate, meaning that the lion’s share of July’s strong haul came after the vice president took over the top of the ticket.
She is looking to reset the race against Mr Trump, stepping up her travel schedule and sharply criticising the Republican nominee.
The vice president is set to become her party’s formal presidential nominee through virtual voting by Democratic convention delegates, set to conclude on Monday.
Her campaign said that two-thirds of its July donations came from first-time contributors in the 2024 election cycle.
In all, the month saw more than three million donors make more than 4.2 million contributions — with more than two million donors making their first donation this cycle, while 94% of July’s donations were under 200 dollars (£157).
The campaign said 60% of its donors in July were women as Ms Harris prepares to be the first woman of colour to be nominated for president by a major political party.
Since her presidential campaign began, Ms Harris’s fundraising has been bolstered by virtual fundraisers organised around supporters of distinct backgrounds including Black Women for Harris, Latinas for Harris and even a White Dudes for Harris.
Together they raised more than 20 million dollars (£15.7 million), her campaign said.
Fundraising aside, the Harris campaign said that by last weekend it had signed up 170,000 new volunteers and held 2,300 events mobilising thousands of supporters across battleground states.
