The electoral struggle between Joe Biden It is donald trump It is also measured in millions of dollars. In addition to this Thursday’s debate, fundraising events and large donations are the other scenarios in which the Democrat and Republican measure each other with special attention before the November elections for the White House. A fight that hadn’t been so even… until now.
TO LOOK: Biden vs Trump: Who is better at the decisive first presidential debate in the United States?
Until two months ago, the Democratic president enjoyed a strong financial advantage over his rival. However, the former Republican president surpassed him in May for the second month in a row, a feat that could be fundamental at this stage of the campaign. Federal records published in recent weeks show that the surge in support for the mogul followed his historic conviction for secretly paying money to a porn star to buy her silence.
Trump’s campaign surpassed Biden’s by more than $60 million in May. The president’s team and the Democratic National Committee together raised $85 million that month, while Trump and Republicans raised $141 million.
Despite this, in the final balance the Democrat’s campaign still surpasses the Republican’s in fundraising by 305 million dollars against 243 million dollars, according to the organization Open Secrets.
In Trump’s case, one amount was crucial to the increase in fundraising in May. The day after Trump was convicted, billionaire Timothy Mellon donated a staggering $50 million to pro-Trump political action committees (PACs), one of the largest ever.
It was this amount, as well as more modest contributions from thousands of anonymous donors that increased after the verdict against Trump, that the former Republican president managed to bridge the financial gap with his rival.
The Trump campaign said it raised $53 million online in the first 24 hours and $70 million in the first 48 hours after the verdict, The New York Times notes.
Political scientist María Puerta Riera, professor of American Government at Valencia College, in Orlando, believes that Trump’s recovery was expected. Firstly, because he was very late due, fundamentally, to the fact that a sector of the Republican Party had the expectation that Nikki Haley could do something to compete, but that did not materialize.
“As soon as it became clear that Trump is the candidate and that this is inevitable, the fragmentation of donations in the Republican Party ended. A key factor was, without a doubt, Mellon’s contribution”, he tells El Comercio.
“It was expected that there would be a recovery, despite President Biden having an advantage over Trump”, he adds.
The numbers continued to grow and multi-million dollar donors were crucial. The newspaper “The Washington Post” highlights that Biden’s campaign numbers do not include the approximately 40 million dollars raised by the Democratic president and his representatives in recent weeks.
One of the most prominent donors was billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who recently donated nearly $20 million to Biden’s campaign. “I supported Joe Biden in 2020 and I am proud to do so again,” he said in a statement sent to “The Washington Post.”
Last week, the American president received 28 million dollars from his Hollywood supporters in a single night. Some of the most acclaimed artists in the United States paraded at the event, such as George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand. Biden was accompanied by his family and former President Barack Obama.
My campaign has some fun and talented people helping us win in November – and we’re doing great.
Thanks for joining me last night! pic.twitter.com/q9hzxIZXgz
-Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 16, 2024
“It’s the biggest Democratic fundraiser ever,” Clooney said.
In March, New York’s Radio City Music Hall event, where late-night host Stephen Colbert interviewed Biden, Obama and former President Bill Clinton, raised $26 million.
In the case of Trump, the newspaper “El País” recalls that a large part of Wall Street supports him more openly, even those who criticized the Republican’s role in the assault on the Capitol in January 2021 closed ranks. Blackstone chief Stephen Schwarzman is one of those who has expressed his support.
While polls show Biden and Trump tied in most polls, some polls show the Democrat leading his rival for the first time by a small margin. With such a tight scenario, attention to fundraising amounts will be increasing.
“Taken together, the numbers detailed in the campaigns’ latest filings with the Federal Election Commission suggest that Democrats may still maintain a monetary advantage in the 2024 presidential race, but with nearly four months until Election Day, the “Trump side” the gap is closing. , if you haven’t already closed it”, says “The Washington Post”.
Puerta explains that, just as the two candidates are very close in the polls, they will also compete side by side in fundraising. “This will be an extremely expensive campaign. I don’t know to what extent there will be a difference because now Trump has taken advantage because he was far behind and it is logical that he is closing that gap. What we can expect is that this will be another scenario within the same competition”, he highlights.
Although Trump’s greater fundraising and Biden’s greater advertising spending bring the two candidates closer to financial parity, the expert sees a factor that harms the Republicans, as a large part of the accumulated resources goes to pay legal expenses.
“They spend money on legal assistance for Trump’s legal problems. The lawyers are not only for their own lawsuits, but also for those of their employees or people linked to their administration who are accused of having participated in one of the lawsuits. Between 40% and 50% go to pay legal expenses. In the United States, an election campaign is very expensive and the advantage in this sense is on the Democrats’ side because they do not have these expenses. This, on the one hand, could benefit Biden, but it is also clear that it puts more pressure on Trump to raise funds,” he points out.
While the final balance of donations will be seen in the coming months, for The New York Times, the combination of Trump’s improved fundraising and Biden’s increased spending on advertising appears to put both parties on the path to achieving parity. financial.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
