President Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee raised a combined $125 million in the last three months, setting a presidential fund-raising record.
The huge infusion of money confirms that the president is building an enormous war chest heading into the 2020 election while the Democrats are set to spend the next several months arguing over their nominee.
Trump’s fund-raising effort included several recent emails, tweets and text messages urging supporters to donate to help protect his presidency after House Democrats announced an impeachment inquiry into the president’s dealings with Ukraine and other matters.
Officials said that the various Trump-related committees have raised a combined $308 million this year, and have $156 million in cash on hand.
Several Democratic candidates reported far smaller fund-raising amounts for the third quarter today.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont reported bringing in $25.3 million; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., announced that he had raised $19.1 million; Senator Kamala Harris of California said she had an $11.6 million haul; and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey disclosed raising more than $6 million.
In the last several years, the ability of political party committees to raise huge sums has been transformed following a Supreme Court decision on campaign finance limits as well as a lift of the cap on what committees could raise from individuals.
When President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised a combined $70 million in the same quarter of 2011, it was in smaller increments, meaning they needed to raise funds from more people.
Still, the war chest that Trump has amassed gives him a significant edge in spending before the general election campaign begins in earnest.