Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign says it has raised $540 million so far for its campaign against Republican nominee former President Donald Trump.
The campaign has had no trouble getting supporters to open their wallets since President Joe Biden announced on July 21 that he would end his campaign and quickly endorse Harris. The campaign said it saw a surge in donations at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Harris and her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, accepted the nomination.
“On Thursday night, just before Vice President Harris’ acceptance speech, we officially crossed the $500 million mark,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a memo released by the campaign on Sunday. “Right after her speech, we had our best fundraising day since our launch.”
Trump has also proven to be a formidable fundraiser, but he appears to have fallen behind in his month-old campaign. Earlier this month, Trump’s campaign and affiliates announced that they had raised $138.7 million in July, less than Harris raised in her first week in the White House. Trump’s campaign reported in early August that it had $327 million in cash on hand.
Harris’s fundraising total came from Harris’ presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Joint Fundraising Committee.
O’Malley Dillon said nearly a third of the donations during the campaign came from first-time donors. About a fifth of first-time donors were young voters and two-thirds were women. The campaign sees them as key voters Harris needs to win in November.
The Harris campaign says it has seen a surge in volunteer support for the vice president, with supporters signing up for nearly 200,000 volunteer shifts to help with the campaign during the convention.
