Through the bad polls, disruptive protests and fitness questions, President Joe Biden has continued to have one big advantage over the Trump campaign — but it appears to be fading fast.
While Biden has battled concerns about his age and backlash from the Israel-Hamas war, the president and the Democratic National Committee continued to outraise their Republican counterparts by millions of dollars. As Donald Trump dominated Biden both nationally and across key swing state polls, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Trump campaign struggled with finances. (RELATED: ‘Competent Loyalists’: Insiders Detail Why Trump’s Campaign Is Firing On All Cylinders Like Never Before)
But over the last two months, the RNC and Trump campaign have started to make a dent in the cash advantage Biden once had. As Trump world continues to announce record-breaking fundraising statistics, one of Biden’s few apparent edges in a tight election could fall by the wayside, strategists told the Daily Caller.
“Democrats will keep up. It’s not going to be a blowout, money wise, but they expected Trump to lose the ability to raise money by charging him with these over the top prosecutions,” Mark R. Weaver, a GOP strategist, told the Caller.
“They didn’t realize that the liquid they were throwing on the fire was not water, but gasoline,” he added.
Today, the Trump campaign announced a record-shattering small-dollar fundraising haul following the sham Biden Trial verdict totaling $34.8 million – nearly double the biggest day ever recorded for the Trump campaign on the WinRed platform.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 31, 2024
Trump’s fundraising blitz started as the GOP primary wrapped up. The RNC and the campaign raised $76 million in the month of April, about $25 more than Biden and the DNC. It was the first time the Trump camp surpassed their competitors in monthly fundraising.
The month prior, the Biden campaign and the DNC brought in $90 million, while Trump and the RNC brought in $65.6 million. In total, Trump’s camp had $93.1 million cash on hand while Biden’s team had $192 million at the end of March.
May is already shaping up to be an even bigger month for the Trump campaign than before. After a Manhattan jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records, the former president’s campaign donation site crashed from an influx of visitors. The campaign later announced that 24 hours after the verdict, it had raised $54.8 million. For the total month, the campaign recently announced it had raised about $141 million. FEC filings revealing fundraising totals for both campaigns in the month of May are not yet available.
The fundraising surge lines up with the unification of the Trump campaign with the RNC. In the spring, Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara and allied operative Michael Whatley became co-chairs of the party organization. Key Trump campaign officials also took positions with the RNC.
“This was a much needed shot in the arm, and although I anticipate Biden and the entire Democratic apparatus having more money, just like they’ve had going back to 2016, Trump needs enough to make sure that they can run the kind of ground game and turnout effort that he needs to win,” Scott Jennings, a longtime GOP adviser in Kentucky and veteran of numerous campaigns, told the Caller.
Jennings added that a lot of Trump’s support comes from mid- and low-propensity voters and unregistered Americans who are less reliable to turn out on election day.
“When I think about what Trump would do with a massive cash infusion, my mind immediately goes to, oh, he’s going to put this into a ground game to ensure that these mid- to low-propensity voters actually come out. And if he’s able to do that and jack up the turnout among that audience, he’s going to win,” he added.
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Pro-Trump MAGA Inc:“MAGA Inc. will report nearly $70 million raised during the month of May. This haul adds to the nearly $300 million reported yesterday by the Trump campaign and supporting groups, for a grand total of more than $370 million.”https://t.co/9hDkumrm5E pic.twitter.com/hMz0Xyc3lT
— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) June 5, 2024
Trump’s court cases, Weaver told the Caller, have had the opposite impact Democrats and his opponents hoped they would.
“It looked as though [Trump] might get beat in the primaries by Ron DeSantis or someone else, but then the Biden White House and its allies started bringing bogus and over the top charges against Donald Trump, and it angered a lot of people in the middle who see America as a place where the rule of law and due process matter,” Weaver said.
“Biden and his minions thought that they were politically drowning Donald Trump. But what they’re really doing is lifting the tide of his support in such a way that the Biden campaign will start to fall behind in the fundraising game,” Weaver continued, adding that the new influx of funds could cause issues for Biden.
MAGA Inc., the super PAC backing Trump, announced that it raised $70 million during the month of May, the New York Times reported. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said it had a record breaking day following Trump’s verdict, bringing in $300,000. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) announced that it raised $360,000 after the former president’s guilty conviction.
While Trump’s new loads of cash are noticeable, Democratic strategist Brad Bannon told the Caller that he does not think it would impact the race, because the former president already gets a ton of advertising at virtually no cost.
“I’m inclined to say no for a couple of reasons. One is when there was a big fundraising gap, I didn’t think it mattered much, because Donald Trump makes his own media and he never has to pay for it. If Donald Trump didn’t spend a cent on his presidential campaign for the next five months, I doubt it would make much difference. The reality is, you know, better or worse, he manufactures his own media,” Bannon told the Caller.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris introduces U.S. President Joe Biden during a campaign rally at Girard College on May 29, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Bannon added that he didn’t think most voters, though maybe a small number in swing states, would pay much attention to the ads that the campaigns are poised to spend their cash on. Jennings believes that the cash won’t all go to ads, but instead toward elevating the campaign’s ground game.
“I don’t think they’re worried about it,” Leslie Marshall, Democratic strategist, told the Caller about the Biden campaign. “I think they expected it. If you notice, Biden doesn’t seem to be phased by polls. Biden doesn’t seem to be phased and that worked well for him in 2020.”
Biden’s positioning in the polls now, however, is worse than at the same time in 2020.
While the Biden campaign has not revealed what it raised in May, other affiliated groups are still working to give the president a fundraising edge. Climate Power and Future Forward USA Action, two nonprofit organizations, are planning to spend $50 million on ads that tout Biden’s actions throughout his administration, the Washington Post reported.
Following the Trump verdict, a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll showed that a majority of registered voters, 67%, think that Trump’s guilty conviction will have no effect on how they’ll vote in the 2024 election. Seventeen percent of Americans said it would make them less likely to vote for Trump.
With five months until the election and variables to change, Jennings told the Caller the latest fundraising news should be encouraging for Republican voters.
“It really ought to give Republicans some optimism about what they’re going to be able to accomplish beyond just your normal TV ads, but with the sort of campaign, mechanics, and infrastructure that’ll be used to turnout all these voters,” Jennings told the Caller.
