Biden and his allied groups raised more money than Trump and his allies during the general election contest. But the surge in post-conviction donations to Trump’s effort — captured in part in May reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday — has the potential to dramatically reshape the presidential race.
The Biden campaign’s long-standing lead in fundraising has allowed his campaign to build a much larger presence than Trump’s and significantly outspend Trump’s effort on the airwaves. The latest fundraising results have put Trump in a position to build a larger operation and air more television ads.
The full picture of the financial strength of each campaign’s effort will only become clear later this summer, when their allied committees are required to report back. But at the end of May, the Trump campaign and the RNC had a combined total of $171 million in cash on hand, surpassing the Biden campaign and the DNC’s combined total of $157 million, according to reports presented at the Thursday.
Trump’s advisers attributed May’s increased donations to donors’ desire to demonstrate their loyalty to the former president following his felony conviction. The campaign claimed it raised $53 million online in the 24 hours after the verdict, but verifying those totals was impossible Thursday because WinRed — the platform that many small donors use to contribute to Republican campaigns — will not file its FEC report for this period until July. .
Trump ally super PAC MAGA Inc. — which has been the main vehicle for pro-Trump advertising on the airwaves — received a staggering $50 million donation from transportation executive Timothy Mellon the day after Trump’s conviction, giving the former president’s allies ample resources to get their message across at a time when he leads Biden in many crucial state polls.
The super PAC plans to spend $100 million on paid media by Labor Day, it announced in a recent memo obtained by The Washington Post.
MAGA Inc. raised $69 million in May — its best fundraising month of the cycle — and reported $94 million in cash on hand. Its largest donation was $50 million from Mellon, who previously gave $25 million to the group and $25 million to a super PAC supporting independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump and the Republican National Committee, which began fundraising together when Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, raised about $106 million in May, more than their previous monthly tallies, according to new records from the Republican National Committee. FEC. Biden and the DNC raised a combined total of $59 million, similar to previous sums.
Overall, Biden’s team said it had $212 million in cash on hand as of May 31.
In addition to Mellon’s donation, MAGA Inc. also received $10 million from Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, powerful donors to conservative causes, and $5 million from Kelcy Warren, the billionaire chairman and chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, the builder of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
FF PAC, an independent super PAC boosting Biden’s reelection effort, reported raising more than $39 million in May, an increase from previous months, and spending just $4 million. But it was surpassed by MAGA Inc., and for the first time this cycle now has slightly less cash on hand than the super PAC supporting Trump.
Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg donated $19 million to the FF PAC on May 30, according to the documents. He also gave the Biden Victory Fund, a joint effort of the campaign and other Democratic committees, the maximum amount of $929,600, according to people familiar with the donations.
Biden had an early lead in raising money with the Democratic National Committee and other coordinated committees, while Trump was still fending off Republican opponents during the GOP primaries.
Biden’s deep coffers have allowed him to spend freely on television ads as his campaign tries to bolster his support among key constituencies, including Black and Latino voters, who are expressing less enthusiasm for his campaign than in 2020.
The Biden campaign says it has also opened more than 200 offices and hired a staff of 1,000 people. It has aired more than $65 million in television ads, according to ad tracking company AdImpact.
The Trump campaign claims to have dozens of offices in swing states that work in coordination with the Republican National Committee, but has declined to detail the scale of their operation other than to say they have an extensive paid and volunteer operation that is “ expanding daily.” The Trump campaign had not run a single general election ad on television as of Thursday, according to AdImpact.
Trump campaign advisers have said they are building a leaner, more efficient operation than in previous cycles and will rely on outside groups to complement their base game. But Dan Kanninen, the Biden campaign’s swing states director, pointed to the infrastructure discrepancy on Thursday.
“With just over four months until the election, Donald Trump couldn’t match our battlefield infrastructure even if he tried,” Kanninen said in a statement. “While Trump’s team desperately tries to frame his lack of infrastructure as ‘strategic,’ the end result is that Donald Trump cannot make up for lost time – and invisible campaigns don’t win.”
Trump adviser Jason Miller pointed to the former president’s lead in battleground polls — arguing in a statement Thursday that “what Biden could use is 1,000 more votes in states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania , because he is losing to the president.” Trump on all of them!”
Fundraising was less focused for Biden during April and May after he made a major push in March, raising more than $90 million. At this juncture, Biden’s broader effort had about $192 million in cash on hand, which was nearly double the money the Trump campaign and the RNC reported in their accounts later that month.
Although Trump surpassed Biden in fundraising in April, his legal projects have hampered his political operation as he defended himself in four criminal cases. He paid many of his legal bills for himself and some of his associates through a leadership PAC known as Save America, which typically takes a $5,000 cut on contributions of $11,600 or more to the Trump 47 committee.
Thursday’s records showed that Save America raised just $4,337 in May but spent $4.3 million, ending the month with less than $4.5 million in cash left to spend. Legal bills represented 85% of the PAC’s May spending, which also accumulated $862,000 in unpaid legal bills.
The partisan committees fighting for control of the House and Senate also released their latest numbers Thursday night. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported $78.8 million in cash on hand after being narrowly surpassed by the National Republican Congressional Committee, which reported $64.7 million in cash at the end of the month.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee reported $48.3 million in cash on hand to the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s $41 million. The DSCC raised $10.6 million in May, while the NRSC raised $12.4 million.
Susie Webb contributed to this report.
