Vice President Kamala Harris raised $361 million in August—a stunning number on its own, but particularly impressive as it nearly tripled the mere $130 million that Donald Trump raised for the month.
Trump has long been a prolific and successful fundraiser, with a knack for taking advantage of his legal troubles to rile up a base of small donors. Earlier this year, the Trump campaign raised more than $52 million in the 24 hours after he was convicted by a New York City jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the Stormy Daniels hush money case. But his more recent troubles, including a lackluster convention and JD Vance’s various stumbles since his debut as Trump’s VP pick, have apparently left his donors cold. Or at least, tapped out.
Either way, Harris appears to be riding a surge of fundraising enthusiasm, with her August fundraising haul following a $250 million for the last weeks of July after she became the Democratic nominee. In fact, Harris has raised so much, that even after transferring $25 million to help down-ballot campaigns, she still has more money in the bank than Trump. According to each campaign’s account, Harris and her allies are sitting on $404 million and Trump just $300 million.
All of this is a dramatic turnaround from Biden’s fundraising, which was strong—he raised $127 million in June, which was more than Trump—but showing serious signs of trouble following his disastrous debate performance.
The numbers for both campaigns are self-reported at this point; they will file official reports with the Federal Election Commission later this month with a more detailed analysis of what kind of donors are giving. But the August haul comes on the heels of largely small donors (those giving less than $200) and first-time donors contributing to Harris’ July fundraising. In the first week of her campaign, roughly two-thirds of donations came from first-time donors—a coveted demographic because, unlike many of Trump’s donors, many of whom have been targeted by his campaign for years, they may still have plenty of money to give.
