This was the blockbuster we all wanted to see. The Harris Victory Fund—which raises money for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and state Democratic groups—brought in a record-shattering $633 million in the third quarter, spanning July through September of this year. She spent nearly $600 million, and had $77 million left in the bank at the end of September. Meanwhile, Trump’s two joint fundraising committees, Trump National Committee JFC and Trump 47 Committee, collectively raised just under $340 million. In other words, a lot less. America PAC, which is doing much of Trump’s get out the vote operation, received $74.95 million from Elon Musk, its sole benefactor. Miriam Adelson, wife of the late casino mogul and big Trump donor Sheldon Adelson, gave $100 million to her own super PAC. Collectively, they were still swamped by Harris’ fundraising juggernaut. Overall, the Harris campaign, together with Democratic groups, has brought in over $1 billion. ActBlue logged its best quarter ever, with 6.9 million donors making 31 million contributions and raising a total of $1.5 billion for Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. That’s an average of $217 per donor. Take that, Musk and Adelson! As the ActBlue blog reports: U.S. House and U.S. Senate fundraising remained strong with small-dollar donors contributing $131 million and $187 million for those candidates, respectively. Local races (councils, legislatures, and more) saw a 23% increase in fundraised dollars from the same period in 2020. Gubernatorial fundraising saw a near 70% increase in dollars raised from Q3 of 2020. Organizations fighting for voting rights received over $76 million in grassroots donations. But oh no, let’s cherry-pick one mediocre poll to freak out about, right? The good news just keeps on coming: In the competitive House races, Democrats averaged raising $2.4 million in the third quarter, while Republicans averaged half that, $1.2 million. In Florida’s Senate race, Republican incumbent Rick Scott raised $4.2 million, his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, raised $12.9 million. In Montana’s Senate race, embattled Democratic incumbent Jon Tester raised $32 million to his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy’s $9.8 million. Wow. In Nebraska’s Senate race, suddenly threatened incumbent Republican Deb Fischer raised $1.2 million, while independent challenger Dan Osborn pulled in $3.3 million. Here’s a fun one: In the Texas Senate race, endangered Republican incumbent Ted Cruz raised $17.2 million, while his Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred, raised—you ready for it?—$30.3 million. RELATED STORY: Watch Ted Cruz get stomped in the Texas Senate debate This is nuts! Remember, everyone thought Citizens United would be the death of the Democratic Party, as it allowed corporate interests to flood Republicans with money. Instead, it forced Democrats to be more responsive to their base, giving space for ActBlue to emerge to handle this new way of financing campaigns. Some of you might remember that Daily Kos was ActBlue’s first partner. We were there at the very beginning of this. Citizens United is exhibit A in the Law of Unintended Consequences. Republicans cheered it as a way to use money to snuff out Democratic candidates. The exact opposite has ended up happening. We need your help if we’re going to defeat Trump, Vance, Project 2025, and Republicans up and down the ballot. Click here to volunteer to write letters so we can increase voter turnout.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/16/2277163/-Harris-blows-Trump-away-in-fundraising-again?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=main