Tom Brenner/The New York Times
President Donald Trump returns after a multi-day trip to Asia to the White House in Washington, June 30, 2019.
New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee on Tuesday said they had raised $105 million in the second quarter of this year, outraising former President Barack Obama in the equivalent period during his reelection campaign in 2012 and signaling that Trump will have vastly more resources than he did in 2016.
The campaign and the RNC said they had a combined $100 million in cash on hand, and that they had raised more money online in the second quarter than in the first half of 2018. Trump and his committees raised $54 million, they said, and the RNC raised $51 million. The staggering figure can be plowed into television and digital advertising, get-out-the-vote efforts and other activities related to the 2020 election.
Campaign officials said they received 725,000 individual donations online, with supporters giving an average of $48. In some cases, they said, people may have donated more than once.
An RNC official said the small-dollar enthusiasm for Trump was something unprecedented in Republican politics, and noted that for the first time ever, the RNC attracted a larger share of donations under $200 than the Democratic National Committee.
At the same time, as president, Trump also has command of the party’s donor base in a way he never did in 2016. The official said the RNC also saw a large uptick in traditional party donors, which increased to more than one-third of the committee’s total fundraising since last cycle.
The RNC has taken the lead on fundraising for Trump’s reelection, overseeing the digital efforts and major donor events.
The official report on the Trump campaign’s finances for the quarter, which will include spending, will be filed with the Federal Election Commission on July 15.
In 2011, during the same period, Obama’s reelection campaign raised $47 million, and the Democratic National Committee brought in $38 million, Jim Messina, the Obama campaign manager, said at the time. The comparisons are not perfect because a 2014 Supreme Court case and other legal changes allowed candidates and parties to form joint fundraising committees that can accept single donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The main impact of his early fundraising is the ability to stockpile large bundles of cash while Democrats are spending their money fighting each other.
