Joe Biden’s withdrawal on July 21 gave a boost to the Democrats’ campaign. Last Friday, August 2, the team of the party’s new candidate, Kamala Harris, announced that it had raised no less than $310 million in July, including $200 million the week after the 81-year-old American president withdrew, coming from new donors.
At the same time, former Republican President and candidate Donald Trump, who survived an assassination attempt on July 13 during a rally, raised only $138.7 million this month. A fundraising increase of 24% compared to the $111.8 million raised in June, but half as much as his Democratic opponent. The American press did not hesitate to comment on this gap, while financing plays an essential role in American election campaigns, especially the presidential one. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris “crushed former President Trump in the race for donations in July,” writes The Los Angeles Times. Same analysis on the chain side MSNBCwhich evokes the “Kamala Harris steamroller”.
The essential role of financing
The team of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s current vice president, is hoping for another jolt in fundraising this week, as she just announced the name of her running mate on Tuesday, August 6, Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, and during the Democratic convention, which opens in Chicago on August 19. The candidates are holding out for nothing to raise funds. Kamala Harris’ campaign team took advantage of this highly anticipated announcement to raise funds, promising her supporters that they could be among the first to know the identity of the running mate if they donated at least $20. These donors could “join an exclusive live broadcast with the vice president and her running mate,” according to recent emails sent to her supporters, reports the Washington Post. While Donald Trump, who in 2015, during his first electoral campaign which preceded his election in November 2016, boasted of“to use [son] own money“, and “not using lobbyists or donors,” has changed its method. While he was recently convicted in a criminal case in a corruption case, the former president’s campaign team did not hesitate to mobilize his voters, sending emails and text messages to ask for donations.
Expensive new technologies
“Campaign finance matters,” Michael Kang, a Northwestern University law professor who specializes in campaign finance, told NPR (National Public Radio). It’s how candidates fund their communications and messages to voters.” The funds raised are used in part for television ads, hiring staff in key states, or to facilitate travel and secure data crucial to reaching target voters. According to the magazine Forbesformer President Donald Trump’s campaign spent $12 million on ads in key swing states in the first week of August. “There are new technology methods, particularly around the internet and digital platforms, where campaigns want to be able to spend a lot of money to reach voters and target people with their messages,” Shanna Ports, campaign finance counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, told National Public Radio.
As the elections progress, the amounts spent are more astronomical than the previous ones. According to the NGO OpenSecretsa political finance organization, spent more than $14 billion in political spending in the 2020 election, double what was spent in the 2016 presidential election. The November 2024 election, according to the NGO, could be the most expensive in American history, surpassing the amount spent in 2020. By comparison, the law limits campaign spending for each candidate running in the second round of the French presidential election to €22.5 million.
(Very) targeted fundraising
In recent weeks, candidate Kamala Harris’s fundraising campaign has been bolstered by virtual fundraisers centered around supporters from diverse backgrounds. It began with a group of Black women (“Black women for Kamala”) meeting on the online platform Zoom that reached a $1 million fundraising goal in about three hours. A series of similar online meetings followed, targeting other demographics, such as “Latinas for Harris” and “White dudes for Harris.” In total, these groups have raised more than $20 million, according to data provided by her campaign.
For his part, Donald Trump is expected to attend “a high-value fundraising dinner this weekend in Colorado,” the local television channel reports. KDVR Fox 31. Attendees can donate or fundraise to attend the event: $500,000 per couple to join the host committee, $100,000 per couple to co-host the event, and $25,000 per couple to attend. Even more targeted, the Republican candidate participated in a similar event in July in Tennessee, on the sidelines of Bitcoin 2024, an annual conference considered the largest gathering of cryptocurrency fans in the country. However, he has been a vocal critic of cryptocurrency, calling it a “scam,” before going on to court its users, assuring that he would be “the pro-innovation, pro-bitcoin president that America needs.”
In addition, both candidates are also widely supported by high-profile billionaires. According to ForbesDonald Trump’s biggest donor is billionaire heir Timothy Mellon, with $75 million in donations. Tesla founder Elon Musk, Linda McMahon, wife of wrestling magnate Vince McMahon, oil tycoon Timothy Dunn, and well-known conservative donors like Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein. Joe Biden, and then Kamala Harris, have attracted billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, former Meta (Facebook) COO Sheryl Sandberg, and philanthropist Melinda Gates.