Kamala Harris raises nearly $1bn to surge past Donald Trump in US election money race

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Kamala Harris raised nearly $1bn in the past three months, as she surged past Donald Trump in the money race to amass a huge campaign war chest for the final stretch of the US presidential election.

Harris’s campaign and affiliated groups backing her raised $971mn from July to the end of September — more than the Trump campaign’s entire haul since the start January 2023 of $894mn, according to a Financial Times analysis of the latest federal filings.

Overall, Harris has received contributions from 4.9mn donors since entering the presidential race on July 21, more than three times as many as her Republican rival’s 1.37mn in the same time.

News of the Democratic candidate’s money haul comes as she and Trump enter the final stretch of an increasingly tight contest. With just two weeks to go before the November 5 vote, both are criss-crossing the country and blitzing voters in crucial swing states with expensive advertising.

The latest polls put the two candidates neck-and-neck nationally and in the seven battlegrounds states, according to the FT’s tracker.

The Harris-Trump money race is much closer when data from so-called super political action committees is included. Unlike political candidates, super pacs can raise unlimited amounts from individuals.

From January 2023 through to the end of September 2024, President Joe Biden and Harris outraised Trump by about $686mn — $1.58bn to $894mn. Including super pacs, groups supporting Biden and Harris have outraised pro-Trump groups by about $370mn — $1.89bn to $1.52bn.

Super pacs have raised nearly half of Trump’s total money. Four billionaire donors combined — Timothy Mellon, Miriam Adelson, Elon Musk and Richard Uihlein — have given $395mn to four pro-Trump super pacs.

The strong Harris figures underscore how her entry into the race in July — after Biden bowed out — electrified Democrats and donors. While Biden was trailing Trump in the polls, the presidential race is now considered a toss-up.

Harris has also secured support from some billionaires. In the third financial quarter, the pro-Harris super pac Future Forward received $5mn from Illinois governor JB Pritzker and another $5mn from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, who had previously donated millions.

But the Democrats have also raked in money from small-dollar donors and are less reliant than Trump’s campaign on the support of billionaires. By the end of September, Harris and Biden had amassed 5.7mn donors — more than in the entire count for Biden in the 2020 cycle.

The Harris campaign received more than 600,000 contributions by donors on each of its first two days after Biden stepped aside, more than any single day of Biden’s 2020 campaign.

The three best grassroots fundraising days of the Harris campaign have also surpassed Trump’s best day. For Trump, that was May 30, when more than 400,000 people contributed to groups backing him after a New York jury convicted him of falsifying business records in the Stormy Daniels hush money trial.

Harris groups received more than 500,000 contributions when Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris on July 21, when Harris and Trump held their only debate on September 10, and when she announced Tim Walz as her running mate on August 6.

Each day saw more donations than any single day of Biden’s 2020 campaign.