The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee raised $210 million in August, his campaign announced Wednesday — well short of the $364.5 million collected by Biden’s campaign and his joint efforts with the national Democratic Party during the same period.
Trump campaign officials did not disclose how much money remained in their cash reserves as the campaign enters the fall sprint to Election Day. But recent signs point to belt tightening by his campaign, an extraordinary development for an incumbent President who filed for reelection the day he was sworn into office in January 2017.
Biden’s outfit has swamped the President’s campaign on the airwaves in recent weeks, with Trump’s campaign briefly suspending TV advertising last month in key states as the Democratic and Republican national conventions took center stage.
The President himself signaled that he might fill any fundraising gap, telling reporters this week he would spend “whatever it takes” of his own real-estate and branding fortune to secure a second term.
Republican officials insist they used their early money to build a durable ground game that will deliver votes at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has upended traditional canvassing plans among Democrats.
“Both campaigns are raising massive amounts of money, but have very different priorities about how to spend it,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement, announcing the August fundraising haul.
“In addition to advertising, President Trump’s campaign has invested heavily in a muscular field operation and ground game that will turn out our voters while the Biden campaign is waging almost exclusively an air war,” he added. “We like our strategy better.”
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said early investments in field, digital and data programming have helped the party build what she called “the most sophisticated ground game in history.”
“Democrats simply cannot compete with our grassroots army of 2 million volunteers,” she added.
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