ADVERTISEMENT

Biden Has Increased His Fundraising Advantage Over Trump in October

Biden Has Increased His Fundraising Advantage Over Trump in October

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign raised $130 million in the first two weeks of October alone and entered the last stretch of the presidential race with $118 million more in the bank than President Donald Trump, allowing him to dominate the airwaves in battleground states just as voters are casting their ballots.

And Biden is spending the money at a steady clip as Election Day approaches. Biden’s campaign spent $145 million in the first two weeks of October, or about $10.4 million a day, more than twice what Trump’s campaign spent over the same period, at $63.1 million.

Biden Has Increased His Fundraising Advantage Over Trump in October

Overall, Biden, the Democratic National Committee and two fundraising committees raised $162.6 million according to their latest filings with Federal Election Commission, while Trump’s re-election effort raised $108 million. Biden’s campaign had $162 million in the bank compared to $43.6 million for Trump.

Trump is being forced to play catch-up in fundraising at the same time he remains consistently behind Biden in national surveys. The president is now down 7.9 percentage points down in the RealClearPolitics polling average and behind, but by narrower margins, in key battleground states less than two weeks before Election Day.

Biden is using the funds to saturate the key states with television ads. His campaign has booked $172 million of television time from Oct. 1 through Election Day compared to $68 million for Trump.

Over the same two weeks, Trump’s campaign took in $43.5 million. Trump Make America Great Again Committee, which raises money from Trump’s grassroots supporters, raised $36 million, but paid out $32 million, or 89 cents of every dollar contributed, to pay expenses. The committee had $25 million cash on hand on Oct. 14. That cost is up from the 77 cents it cost the group to raise a dollar in the third quarter:


Overall, Trump, the RNC and its supporting committees reported $223.6 million in the bank. Trump Victory, which raises money from bigger donors for the president’s campaign, the RNC and state party committees, had the largest total, some $81.5 million. Like TMAGA, Trump Victory made no transfers to Trump’s campaign or the RNC, instead dividing $19.8 million among 25 state party committees.

Biden took in an average of $9.3 million a day over the first two weeks of October, putting his team on track to easily top the $234 million his campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said it would raise before the election. The Democratic nominee already had enough money in the bank in mid-October to spend more than $8 million a day.

The disclosures, filed with the FEC Thursday, are the last detailed reports that campaigns and committees will file before Election Day.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.