Washington, Sep 6 (IANS) The Kamala Harris campaign said Friday it raised $361 million in August, which is nearly three times more than the $130 million raised by the team of her Republican rival and former President Donald Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris goes into the home stretch of the 2024 White House race with a total of $404 million in cash.
These final 60 days to the Election Date of November 5 kicked off Friday also with North Carolina slated to become the first state to start mailing out 2024 ballots, with other states to follow.
Early in-person voting will start later this month in Pennsylvania (September 16), Minnesota (September 20), Virginia (September 20), Maine (September 21), and Illinois (September 26).
“As we enter the final stretch of this election, we’re making sure every hard-earned dollar goes to winning over the voters who will decide this election,” said Harris-Walz 2024 campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
“Make no mistake: this election will be hard-fought and hard-won. But with the undeniable, organic support we are seeing, we are making sure we are doing everything possible to mobilise our coalition to defeat Donald Trump once and for all.”
The Trump campaign announced on Wednesday that it had raised $130 million in August and had said a “stunning” 98 per cent of which were in contributions of less than $200. And it has $295 million cash on hand.
“These fundraising numbers from August are a reflection of that movement and will propel President Trump’s America First movement back to the White House so we can undo the terrible failures of Harris and Biden,” said Brian Hughes, Trump campaign senior advisor.
Apart from raising more money, Harries has been ahead of the former President in polls – 48.3 per cent to 46.5 per cent in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls and 47.2 per cent to 44.1 per cent in FiveThirtyEight’s weighted average of national polls.
They will square up for their first debate on September 10, in Philadelphia.
Harris’s rise to the top of the Democratic ticket in July has galvanised the Democratic party. Most of the August collection came from grassroots donors who contributed less than $200 each. The Harris campaign said it received contributions from 3 million donors in August and of these 1.3 million were new, first-time donors. Of those first-time donors, the campaign added, three-quarters did not contribute in the last presidential election.
The Harris team plans to use this sizable war chest for large campaign events, including “the largest weekend of action” to focus on Trump’s Project 2025, which is a document former Trump administration officials and aides have put together as a plan for his administration if he wins. Trump has sought to distance himself from this document but the Democrats won’t let him. The Harris campaign has planned more than 2,000 events on this document involving 20,000 volunteers ahead of the debate next Tuesday.
–IANS
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