Former President Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party overtook President Biden and the Democrats last month for the first time this election cycle, campaign officials said, as Biden’s fundraising pace slowed significantly since March.
Mr. Trump’s advisers said privately that his campaign, along with the Republican Party and all its affiliated committees, raised $76.2 million in April. The Biden campaign said Monday evening that it raised $51 million from the Democratic National Committee in April – a little more than half as much as in March and also a little less than in February.
In filings with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, Mr. Biden’s campaign committee said it took in $24.2 million in April, compared with $43.8 million in March.
As April filings show, Trump’s campaign is still far behind in total cash on hand. Mr. Biden’s campaign ended April with a cash balance of $84.5 million, roughly flat from the previous month, while Mr. Trump’s campaign had a net cash balance of $48 million, up from $45 million US dollar in March.
Mr. Trump was widely expected to close the fundraising gap with Mr. Biden once he secured the Republican nomination, as he can now co-raise with the Republican National Committee and collect checks for more than $800,000 per donor. Mr. Biden has been collecting such large checks with his party for months, building a $192 million war chest with the Democratic National Committee and their joint accounts.
The Biden operation’s cash pile remained flat month to month as the campaign invested in a series of battleground offices as well as an early advertising push.
Mr. Trump is ahead of Mr. Biden in many polls, including recent New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer polls that showed the former president ahead in five of the six most closely contested states. But Democrats had a significant cash advantage, largely because Mr. Biden, as the incumbent, was able to reach a joint fundraising agreement with the party months before Mr. Trump, who had primary opponents until early March.
According to the documents, Mr. Trump continues to spend millions of dollars on legal fees. Save America, a committee set up to pay his legal fees, allocated $3.3 million for that purpose in April.
The documents filed Monday provide a partial perspective, as some of the committees do not file their reports until July and some details about how Mr. Trump’s money flowed between the various allied committees remain unclear. It’s not clear how much Mr. Trump and Republicans had on hand overall at the end of the month.
Still, the filings and campaign statements reflect a busy fundraising month for Mr. Trump. In early April, his campaign and the party reported raising more than $50 million at a private dinner in Palm Beach, Florida.
April was a slower month for Mr. Biden, in contrast to a March packed with major events, including his State of the Union address and a star-studded event at Radio City Music Hall with his Democratic predecessors. The campaign and party said they raised $90 million in March.
In February, the Biden campaign reported that it had raised more than $53 million in its committees with the party.
Mr. Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a statement on Monday that the new numbers reflect “strong, sustained enthusiasm from the base.” She added: “Trump’s operation continues to devour money and lag behind our growing and aggressive campaign, with no ground game and no demonstrable interest in speaking to the voters they need to win.”
Later that evening, supporters of the president received a very different message in an email solicitation for cash: “We’re worried,” it said. “At this point, we are not even close to the amount we raised last month,” the email said.
In a statement released by Trump’s campaign on Monday evening, he said: “The only people in America who support Crooked Joe Biden are out-of-touch billionaires in Hollywood, and it turns out that even they are tired of pandering to a failure .” Campaign.” The campaign added that his achievements “are particularly notable considering he has been locked in a courtroom for nearly nine hours a day for the past four weeks.”
Mr. Trump’s campaign itself took in $9.4 million of the total revenue, mostly transfers from a joint fundraising committee that served as his main fundraising vehicle. The Trump campaign spent very little – just $5.5 million, including $1.4 million on mail and postage, more than $600,000 on legal services and nearly $500,000 on staging events .
The Republican National Committee took in $32 million in April and ended the month with nearly $39 million. The Democratic National Committee reported that it raised $35.5 million in April and ended up with $62 million on hand.
Save America, the committee that paid Mr. Trump’s legal fees, received a $6 million transfer from Mr. Trump’s main joint fundraising committee in early April, the filings show. It was the first such transfer recorded this calendar year and the largest so far this cycle. Since February 2023, the joint fundraising committee has transferred a total of $14 million to Save America.
Save America also received $2.75 million in April from a super PAC backing Mr. Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., and $183,000 from a new joint fundraising committee Mr. Trump has with the Republican Party .
MAGA Inc. reported raising $12.8 million in April. including $10 million from Timothy Mellon, a Wyoming businessman and heir to the Mellon banking fortune, who has now donated a total of $25 million to the group. Mr. Mellon also donated $25 million to a super PAC supporting the independent presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to that group’s April filings, including a $5 million donation last year Month.
Mr. Biden’s campaign spent slightly less in April, totaling $25.2 million compared to $29.2 million in March.
Mr. Kennedy’s campaign released its April report on Friday, days ahead of schedule, showing it had raised $10.7 million. As expected, that included an $8 million cash injection from his running mate, Silicon Valley investor Nicole Shanahan, who has poured a total of $10 million of her fortune into the campaign since her appointment in March.
At the same time, traditional fundraising for Mr. Kennedy appears to have remained steady in the $2 million to $3 million per month range this year. Excluding Ms. Shanahan’s donations, the campaign raised less than $2.7 million in April, compared with about $3.4 million in non-Shanahan donations in March.
But campaign spending has risen sharply in recent months as Mr. Kennedy seeks ballot access in all 50 states. The campaign said it spent $6.5 million in April, including $2.2 million on Accelevate 2020, its top ballot access adviser.
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2024-05-21 04:44:06
www.nytimes.com
