Biden and his allies raised more money than Trump and his allies over the course of the general election. But the surge in donations following his conviction to Trump’s efforts — captured in part in the May reports filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission — has the potential to dramatically reshape the presidential race.
The Biden campaign’s long-standing leadership in fundraising allowed his campaign to build a much larger footprint than Trump’s and significantly outpace Trump’s on-air efforts. The latest fundraising results have put Trump in a position to build a bigger operation and air more television ads.
The full picture of the financial strength of each campaign’s efforts won’t become clear until later this summer, when their allied committees are due to submit reports. But by the end of May, the Trump campaign and the RNC had a combined $171 million in cash on hand, surpassing the Biden campaign and the DNC’s combined total of $157 million, according to reports filed late Thursday.
Trump’s advisers have attributed May’s increase in donations to donors’ desire to show their loyalty to the former president following his felony conviction. The campaign claimed it had raised $53 million online in the 24 hours after the verdict, but verifying those totals was impossible Thursday because WinRed — the platform many small donors use to contribute to Republican campaigns — withdrew its FEC report for this period will not be submitted until July. .
Trump-affiliated super PAC MAGA Inc. — which has been the primary vehicle for pro-Trump advertising on the airwaves — received an eye-popping $50 million donation from Transportation Director Timothy Mellon a day after Trump’s conviction, helping the former president’s allies have ample resources to support his message at a time when he is leading Biden in many state polls.
The super PAC plans to spend $100 million on paid media through Labor Day, it was announced in a recent memo obtained by The Washington Post.
MAGA Inc. raised $69 million in May – the best fundraising month of the cycle – and reported $94 million in cash. The largest donation was the $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. supported.
Trump and the Republican National Committee, which began fundraising jointly when Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, raised about $106 million in May, more than their previous monthly numbers, according to the new FEC filings. Biden and the DNC together raised $59 million, similar to their previous amounts.
In total, the Biden team said it had $212 million in cash on hand as of May 31.
In addition to Mellon’s donation, MAGA Inc. received also $10 million from Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, powerful donors to conservative causes, and $5 million from Kelcy Warren, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the builder of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
FF PAC, an independent super PAC boosting Biden’s reelection efforts, reported it raised more than $39 million in May, up from previous months, and spent just $4 million. But it was outpaced by MAGA Inc., and for the first time this cycle now has slightly less money on hand than the Trump-supporting super PAC.
According to the documents, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg donated $19 million to FF PAC on May 30. 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 gained an edge by raising money from the Democratic National Committee and other coordinated committees, while Trump continued to fend off Republican challengers during the Republican primaries.
Biden’s rich coffers have allowed him to spend freely on television ads as his campaign tries to boost his support among key constituencies, including Black and Latino voters, who express less enthusiasm for his campaign than in 2020.
Biden’s campaign also says it has opened more than 200 offices and hired a thousand people. It has already aired more than $65 million in television ads, according to ad tracking company AdImpact.
The Trump campaign says it has dozens of offices in battleground states run in coordination with the Republican National Committee, but has declined to detail the scope of its operations other than to say they have an extensive paid and volunteer operation that “ expanding daily.” The Trump campaign had not aired 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 supplement their base game. But Dan Kanninen, the Biden campaign’s battleground director, pointed out the infrastructure discrepancy on Thursday.
“With just over four months until the election, Donald Trump couldn’t match our battleground infrastructure if he tried,” Kanninen said in a statement. “While Trump’s team desperately tries to portray their lack of infrastructure as ‘strategic,’ the bottom line is that Donald Trump can’t buy back the time he’s lost — and invisible campaigns don’t win.”
Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, 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 loses to the president. Trump in all of them!”
Fundraising was less of a focus for Biden in April and May, after he made a big push in March, raising more than $90 million. At that point, the broader Biden 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 at the end of that month.
Although Trump surpassed Biden in fundraising in April, his legal bills have put pressure on his political activities as he has defended himself in four criminal cases. He has paid many of his legal bills for himself and some of his associates through a leadership PAC known as Save America, which typically gets a $5,000 cut on contributions of $11,600 or more to the Trump 47 committee.
Thursday’s filings showed that Save America raised just $4,337 in May, but spent $4.3 million and ended the month with less than $4.5 million to spend. Legal bills accounted for 85 percent of the PAC’s spending in May, which also racked up $862,000 in unpaid legal bills.
The party committees competing for control of the House and Senate also announced their latest figures on Thursday evening. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported $78.8 million in cash, 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 Senate Campaign Committee reported $48.3 million in cash to the National Republican Senate 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.
