Q&A of the Day – Campaign Cash – How Much Kamala Harris Raised, Inherited and Has Spent
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.
Today’s Entry: Submitted via talkback asking about how much Harris raised as compared to what was inherited from the Biden campaign.
Bottom Line: Campaign cash has been a hot topic as we’re now only 3 months away from Election Day with reports throughout the past several days that presumptive Democrat nominee Kamala Harris had raised record sums over money following Biden’s exit from the race. In total it was reported that Harris was able to haul in a total of $310 million during the month with a record $200 million coming in the first week of her presidential campaign. But to the point of today’s question how much of the record haul was due to organic fundraising and how much was potentially inherited? As I covered a couple of weeks ago in the immediate aftermath of Biden’s departure and Harris’ assent to presumptive nominee... One of the most likely reasons for Harris to become the nominee (aside from ID politics and the like within the Democrat Party) was the ability to inherit Biden’s campaign cash.
The Federal Election Campaign Act, first enacted in 1971 and amended multiple times since, is the guiding law on this topic. As it pertains to this situation, the law is clear in one regard. With Biden out of the race all the campaign resources could be assumed by the Harris campaign. Without getting into the legalese of federal campaign law what’s important is intent. The bottom line is that if donors thought they were donating to the Biden-Harris ticket – Harris has the legal right to run with those resources with Biden no longer in the mix. In literally any other scenario, if money raised for the Biden-Harris campaign were attempted to be transferred, there would be legal matters that would be decided by the courts as this law has never been tested this way.
In short, there’s no legal way for that money to be moved to any other candidate than Harris. Any effort to do so would be challenged in the courts with those funds almost certain to be frozen. So fast forward to what’s happened with July’s campaign finance disclosures having taken place last week.
The Harris campaign’s filing showed a total of war chest of $377 million entering August. Here’s the breakdown of her funds to date.
- $310 million raised in July
- $95 million inherited from the Biden-Harris campaign
- $28 million spent in July
And that’s how she ended the month with $377 million. So, in answer to your question – yes, the $310 million reported was new money raised with two-thirds of the donors being first time donors. The bottom line is that there had been a lot of would-be donors who were on the sidelines for months with Biden remaining as the nominee, who came off the sidelines with her entrance in the race. While Harris’ fund-raising dwarfed Trump’s during the month, the campaign cash dynamic isn’t as lopsided as it may seem when reported. But yes, there’s also likely a little smoke and mirrors with PAC money in play as well. Harris nor Trump’s campaigns broke out how much money was direct to their campaigns vs. affiliated PACs, for that reason it’s possible and even likely that much of the PAC money had been previously pledged to Biden, but then pulled back by donors, was redirected towards Harris. That’s where there could be a little bit of perceived inflating in Harris’ numbers – regardless, it doesn’t change the end result. Meanwhile...
Trump brought in $139 million in July as well, which is a huge total, and he’d out fundraised Biden in all but one of the prior six months as well. As a result, his campaign entered August with $327 million ready to deploy – so there’s only a $50 million disparity between the two campaigns as they enter the final three months of this historic campaign.