NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are dominating the fight for campaign money in the Republican presidential race, according to federal documents released Saturday. While some have struggled, like former Vice President Mike Pence, others have reported significant moves that help ensure the 2024 GOP primary will be packed for the foreseeable future.
On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign quickly amassed a sizeable fortune. But longtime Democratic lead opponent Robert Kennedy Jr. has also raised enough to ensure he won’t be ignored.
Overall, the second quarter filings for the Presidential Class of 2024 with the Federal Election Commission, covering the period between April 1 and June 30, leave several questions unanswered. For example, the total number of individual donors for each campaign, a figure directly related to participation in the GOP debate, will not be known until the end of the month.
And each candidate’s super PAC allies, who in some cases account for the majority of their campaign money, won’t file the final numbers until the end of the month.
Still, federal reports offer several insights six months before the first primary votes are cast. Here are some takeaways:
TRUMP AND DESANTIS ON A LEVEL OF ITS PART
While Trump leads in most polls, he and DeSantis are on their own level on the fundraising front.
Trump’s team recently confirmed that its joint fundraising operation – which splits money between Trump’s campaign and the Save America PAC – received $35 million in the second quarter. The campaign did not say how much of that $35 million went to the campaign and how much went to Save America, which has covered non-campaign expenses in the past, including Trump’s legal fees.
The average donation to Trump’s 2024 campaign now stands at $34, evidence the campaign says of his grassroots support.
Earlier in the week, DeSantis announced he had raised $20 million for the six weeks he was in the race. The Florida governor’s allied super PAC, which is legally barred from coordinating with the campaign, said it has raised $130 million since the committee launched in March. More than half of that came from a state-level political committee once controlled by DeSantis.
Whatever his background, DeSantis’ fundraiser will buy him time to strengthen his candidacy as he struggles to catch Trump in the polls.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE DEBATE
The fundraising numbers take on added significance because they tie directly into the first GOP presidential debate next month.
Above a 1% voting threshold, the Republican National Committee announced that candidates must have a minimum of 40,000 unique donors with at least 200 unique donors per state or territory, in 20 states and territories.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy announced in recent days that they had reached the threshold of 40,000 donors. Pence has yet to make such an announcement.
Saturday’s federal filings don’t provide a full account of those numbers, which won’t be available until the end of the month.
Overall, Haley’s campaign raised $7.3 million in the second quarter and ended June with $9.3 million in the bank. That’s when the main pro-Haley super PAC demanded $17 million in cash.
Scott has raised $6.1 million since announcing his campaign in May. And Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old entrepreneur, raised more than $7.7 million in the quarter, including loaning his campaign $5 million from his own personal fortune. He ended the quarter with over $9 million in hand.
Christie, in the running for just 25 days of the second quarter, has raised $1.65 million through her campaign and has nearly $1.6 million in the bank as of June 30.
PENCE IN PROBLEM?
Pence raised less than $1.2 million and ended the quarter with nearly $1.1 million in the bank, according to its federal filing.
He could still hit the 40,000-donor threshold to qualify for the opening debate, but the extraordinary possibility remains that the former vice president finds himself left out of the Aug. 23 primetime case.
Pence has struggled to find his footing since launching his campaign in early June.
A longtime conservative and stalwart Trump loyalist during his tenure, Pence was reviled by the GOP base for refusing to block certification of Biden’s Jan. 6, 2021 victory, as Trump insisted. The former vice president had no legal standing to block election results despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, sparking a violent uprising in the US Capitol in which radicalized Trump supporters chanted for Pence to be hanged .
Others also seem to be struggling to attract donations.
Former Arkansas Governor Hutchinson announced a fundraising total of more than $743,000, including his main campaign and joint fundraising committee. On Friday, he said he received contributions from 3,928 unique donors from April to June. And since July 1, it has claimed contributions from 2,516 other unique donors.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, the only Hispanic candidate in the Republican primary, has raised $945,000 since launching his campaign two weeks before the end of the quarter. California conservative Larry Elder, one of two African Americans seeking the GOP nomination, raised just $467,000.
BIDEN STRONG, BUT NOT ALONE
Biden and the Democratic National Committee have raised more than $72 million for his re-election in the 10 weeks since announcing his candidacy in 2024.
The president’s fundraising total includes donations to his campaign and to a network of joint fundraising agreements with national and state parties. Although this is a huge sum, President Barack Obama raised $85.6 million in the April to June quarter of 2011 when he launched his campaign for a second term, despite announcing his candidacy three weeks earlier.
The Biden campaign said the total came from nearly 400,000 donors, and 97% of donations were under $200 and more than 30% of donors did not give to Biden in 2020.
Biden is uniquely positioned, at least relative to Republicans, because he can spend his money in the general election. The incumbent president faces only token opposition in the race for the Democratic Party nomination, although one of his opponents, Kennedy, has raised enough money to ensure he will not be completely ignored.
Kennedy’s campaign raised nearly $6.4 million for the quarter and had $4.5 million in the bank as of June 30. A pro-Kennedy super PAC, meanwhile, said he’s raised more than $10 million so far.
___
Associated Press writers Chad Day and Brian Slodysko in Washington contributed.