Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign says it has now raised $540m for its election battle against Donald Trump.
The vice-president’s campaign has had no problems getting supporters to open their wallets since Joe Biden announced on 21 July he was ending his run for re-election to the White House and quickly endorsed Harris. The campaign said it saw a surge of donations during last week’s Democratic national convention in Chicago where Harris and her vice-presidential running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, accepted their nominations.
“Just before vice-president Harris’ acceptance speech Thursday night, we officially crossed the $500m mark,” the campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a memo released by the campaign on Sunday. “Immediately after her speech, we saw our best fundraising hour since launch day.”
Trump has also proved to be a formidable fundraiser but appears to be outpaced in her month-old campaign. The Republican nominee and former president’s campaign announced earlier this month that, alongside its related affiliates, they had raised $138.7m in July – less than what Harris took in during her candidacy’s opening week. Trump’s campaign reported $327m in cash on hand at the start of August.
The Harris fundraising totals were raised by Harris for President, the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees.
O’Malley Dillon said that nearly a third of contributions during convention week came from first-time contributors. About one-fifth of those first-time contributors were young voters and two-thirds were women, groups that the campaign sees as critical constituencies that Harris needs to turn out to win in November.
The Harris campaign says it has also seen a surge in volunteer support for the vice-president. During convention week, supporters signed up for nearly 200,000 volunteer shifts to help the campaign.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
