Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party outraged President Trump and the Republicans for the second consecutive month in June, announcing a record $ 141 million fundraiser on Wednesday night just hours after the campaign to Trump had announced his own $ 131 million. total.
The two launches of the presidential candidates represented huge spikes since May, when Biden raised $ 80.8 million and Trump $ 74 million.
The totals were impressive in different ways. For Mr. Biden, the large sum represented an investment after struggling with fundraising for much of the primary campaign, as well as a sign that party donors, large and small, have rallied behind him. . For Mr. Trump, he showed the durability of his financial supporters, who delivered their strongest month yet, despite a turbulent month of June and polls showing that he is following Mr. Biden wrong.
The Trump campaign had celebrated his $ 131 million trip earlier Wednesday night, with Brad Parscale, the campaign manager, writing on Twitter: “Americans vote with their wallets and support the president.”
Then the Biden campaign announced its highest monthly fundraising amount.
“There is real grassroots energy for Joe,” wrote Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden’s campaign manager, on Twitter, adding that 68 percent of donors were new to the campaign and 2.6 million people were they had registered to participate. Mr. Biden’s email list.
Still, the Trump campaign said it now had $ 295 million in the bank, a formidable financial advantage in the summer months, and that it had raised nearly $ 950 million in the past two years. Mr. Biden’s campaign did not reveal his total available cash.
Trump also spent aggressively. Figures released by his campaign show he spent about $ 100 million in June.
Coronavirus cases also began to rise in states that had reopened their economies more fully, including across the South and the Sun Belt.
None of that slowed the flow of money. Neither did multiple national polls showing Mr. Trump behind double digits, including a New York Times / Siena College poll that had Mr. Biden at 50 percent and Mr. Trump at 36 percent.
The Trump campaign said it had set a one-day record for fundraising online on his birthday, June 14, raising $ 14 million. The total sum of $ 131 million came when Trump held just two fundraising events during the month.
The Trump campaign did not break down the amount of money raised online or came from large donations, its joint committee with the RNC may receive checks of more than $ 500,000, but said the outpouring was “largely fueled by robust digital mail. and online donor base “of the president.
The total is more than what Trump and the RNC raised in a single month in 2016.
“The Trump campaign’s monumental June fundraising campaign shows that people vote with their wallets, and that enthusiasm for President Trump’s re-election is only growing,” said Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager.
In the past few days, the Trump campaign reserved about $ 95 million in television commercials for the fall, starting after Labor Day in half a dozen states: Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He also started buying airtime in Michigan on Wednesday.
Fundraising figures are not required to be released until mid-July. The Trump campaign released its numbers on July 1 in what appeared to be a political show of force, and hours later, Biden’s team surpassed it.
