Harris rakes in $310 million to erase Trump cash advantage

Vice President Kamala Harris raised an eye-bulging amount of money in July, bringing in $310 million last month for a $377 million war chest before the coming fall fight.

Cresting a wave of enthusiasm since President Joe Biden endorsed her as the new 2024 Democratic nominee last week, Harris’s $310 million is more than what Biden raised from April through June. It is also more than what former President Donald Trump raised in July, with Harris’s Republican challenger bringing in $139 million for $327 million cash on hand.

Harris’s July numbers, which combine her campaign fundraising with that of the Democratic National Committee and their joint fundraising committees, mean Democrats have already raised $1 billion this election, the fastest that has happened during a cycle in presidential history. The campaign has underscored that two-thirds of July’s donors were first-time contributors and that the “vast majority” were grassroots donors contributing less than $200, so they could potentially give more this year.

“Compared to June, we saw more than 10 times the number of Gen Z donors, and more than 8 times the number of millennial donors,” the campaign wrote on Thursday. “60% of all donors in July were women.”

“Coalition groups that organized calls since launch — like Black Women for Harris, Latinas for Harris, and yes, White Dudes for Harris — raised more than $20 million for Team Harris,” it added in its memo.

Campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez described the numbers as evidence Harris’s coalition was “mobilized, growing, and ready to put in the work.” Last week, the campaign emphasized how it had welcomed more than 170,000 new volunteers and held 2,300 events in battleground states to mark 100 days before Election Day, with the help of more than 260 coordinated campaign offices and 1,400 staff.

“This is a history-making haul for a candidate who will make history this November,” Rodriguez wrote. “Our money is going to the work that wins close elections — whether it be the organizer knocking doors in DeKalb County, a rural office opening in Pennsylvania, or a college student tabling at a club fair.”

In a short statement circulated hours before the Harris camp shared the vice president’s numbers, the Trump campaign disclosed the former president’s own data.

“President Donald J. Trump and authorized committees raised $138.7 Million in the month of July providing a cash on hand total of $327 million,” Trump’s team wrote. “These numbers reflect continued momentum with donors at every level and provide the resources for the final 96 days until victory Nov. 5.”

Biden had routinely outraised Trump until Super Tuesday, when the Republican presidential primary concluded and Trump’s campaign merged with the Republican National Committee. Even Biden’s $26 million fundraiser with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in New York in March was quickly overshadowed a couple of weeks later by a $50.5 million finance event for Trump organized by billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson in Florida. Then, months later, Trump brought in $53 million during the first 24 hours after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trial.

Enthusiasm for Harris has also been evidenced by her crowd sizes, drawing 10,000 people to Georgia State University’s Convocation Center last Tuesday for the best-attended Democratic event of the season.