Blitz Bureau
DEMOCRAT Kamala Harris has raised $540 million in little more than a month since she began her race for U.S. president, with a surge of donations flowing in during the Democratic National Convention last week, her campaign said on August 25.
$82 million after convention
A memo released by Harris’ campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said the $540 million raised included $82 million that came in during convention week and is a sign of Democratic enthusiasm for her candidacy. “This is the most ever for any presidential campaign in this time span,” she said.
Harris and her vice presidential running mate, Tim Walz, take their campaign for the White House on a bus tour through Georgia this week, looking to build support in a state looming large in the November 5 election. The eye-watering amount of $540 million, raised since Harris launched her campaign after President Joe Biden dropped out of the White House race on July 21 and endorsed her, comes as she and Republican rival Donald Trump embark on the final 10-week sprint to election.
Trump, whose campaign looked stronger when Biden stepped aside, was reported to have $327 million cash on hand at the start of August. Just before Harris took to the stage at the DNC last week to accept her party’s nomination, “we officially crossed the $500 million mark,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a memo.
“Immediately after her speech, we saw our best fundraising hour since launch day,” she continued. The sum reflects funds raised across the campaign, the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees, the statement said. One-third of those donations were from first-time contributors, O’Malley Dillon said.
Army of volunteers
Harris’s campaign appears to have energised large and small donors alike— a turnaround from the uncertain period after a disastrous Biden debate performance in June, when major donors reportedly halted fundraising. It also appears to have mobilised what O’Malley Dillon called “a virtual army of volunteers,” with the convention seeing grassroots workers signing up in droves.
