Harris-Trump cash dash: Former president looks to flip script with fundraising swing in oil country
Why does Vice President Kamala Harris enjoy a substantial fundraising advantage over former President Trump in their 2024 election showdown?
Trailing Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 cash dash, former President Trump heads next week to Texas, a state that's long served as an ATM for Republican White House candidates.
Aiming to narrow the fundraising gap with Harris, the former president will headline a luncheon Oct. 2 in Midland, Texas, as he courts donors in oil country. That luncheon will be followed by a cocktail reception in Houston, sources in Trump's political orbit confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Trump will also headline a fundraiser in Dallas during his Texas swing.
According to the latest figures available from the Federal Election Commission, Harris hauled in nearly $190 million in fundraising for her 2024 campaign in August, more than quadrupling the $44.5 million that Trump's team reported bringing into his principal campaign account last month.
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And the vice president's campaign entered September with $235 million cash on hand, well ahead of the $135 million in Trump's coffers, according to the FEC filings.
The latest cash figures are another sign of the vice president's surge in fundraising since replacing President Biden atop the Democrats' 2024 ticket over two months ago.
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This isn't the first time Trump's faced a fundraising deficit. He raised less than 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in his White House victory and by President Biden four years ago in his re-election defeat.
"The Democrats' small-dollar fundraising machine is just better," acknowledged Dan Eberhart, an oil drilling CEO and prominent Republican donor and bundler who raised big bucks for Trump in the 2020 and 2024 cycles.
Eberhart pointed to Trump's surge in grassroots fundraising earlier this year, after he made history as the first former or current president convicted in a criminal trial, and noted that "Trump is the best small-dollar fundraiser the Republicans have ever had. But I still think, just overall, the Democrats' small-dollar fundraising machine is just better."
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The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee enjoyed a fundraising lead over Trump and the Republican National Committee earlier this year. But Trump and the RNC topped Biden and the DNC by $331 million to $264 million during the second quarter of 2024 fundraising.
Biden enjoyed a brief fundraising surge after his disastrous performance in his late June debate with Trump as donors briefly shelled out big bucks in a sign of support for the 81-year-old president.
But Biden's halting and shaky debate delivery also instantly fueled questions about his physical and mental ability to serve another four years in the White House and spurred a rising chorus of calls from within his own party for the president to end his bid for a second term. The brief surge in fundraising didn't last and, by early July, began to significantly slow down.
Biden bowed out of the 2024 race July 21, and the party quickly consolidated around Harris, who instantly saw her fundraising soar, spurred by small-dollar donations.
And the Harris campaign spotlighted that the vice president hauled in $47 million in the 24 hours after her first and likely only debate with Trump earlier this month.
"We've been playing catch-up ever since Act Blue first started, figuring out an effective way to mine the low-dollar, small-dollar fundraising," Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks told Fox News, pointing to the Democrats' on-line fundraising platform.
Brooks, who has close ties to the GOP's donor class, said while "there's no question that the Democrats have perfected" their small-dollar fundraising, "I think we're doing better and better. I like the trajectory we're on."
But a source in Trump's political orbit said "the max-out donors have already given. There's not a lot of juice left from that. Any juice left would be in the small-dollar on-line fundraising, and the moments for that are kind of passed in terms of debates, making the running mate pick, the conventions. All that stuff is past."
Fundraising, along with polling, is a key metric in campaign politics and a measure of a candidate's popularity and a campaign's strength. The money raised can be used — among other things — to hire staff, expand grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote efforts, pay to produce and run ads on TV, radio, digital and mailers and for candidate travel.
"We're going to be outspent, and that's going to lead to a better ground game for Harris," a veteran Republican operative who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News.
But Brooks emphasized that "the saving grace is that we have strong support among major donors and big dollar donors going into the super PACs, which you have to take into consideration."
"I think you have to look at the totality of the pro-Trump money out there, and I think the super PACs help level the playing field significantly," he added.
When asked about the fundraising deficit, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley told Fox News Digital earlier this month "the Democrats have a ton of money. The Democrats always have a ton of money."
However, he emphasized that "we absolutely have the resources that we need to get our message out to all the voters that we’re talking to and feel very comfortable that we’re going to be able to see this campaign through, and we’re going to win on Nov. 5."
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