Joe Biden’s presidential campaign has raised a record-breaking $383 million in September, its second straight historic monthly fundraising haul as the campaign nears Election Day.
The September total surpasses Biden’s August haul of $364.5 million, which the campaign then categorized as “the best month of online fundraising in American political history.”
The former vice president’s campaign has raised three-quarters of a billion dollars in just two months, a colossal amount of fundraising that has helped heap pressure on President Trump’s campaign to keep up.
The amount far outstrips the $154 million raised by 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in September 2016.
Biden now has $432 million in the bank to sustain his campaign through the last month of the race, per campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Trump had a sizable advantage throughout much of the campaign in cash on hand, which is the amount of money available for a campaign to spend.
However, a combination of heavy spending and increased donations sparked by the Democratic National Convention and the addition of Sen. Kamala Harris to the Democratic ticket in August helped Biden’s campaign overtake Trump’s reelection bid by more than $141 million.
In a video announcing the September number, Biden shared the news with a grassroots supporter named Trimicka.
To every person who chipped in a few dollars last month — thank you. Because of your support, we raised an astounding $383 million. I’m incredibly humbled.
There’s still more work to be done, but I wanted to share the good news with Trimicka, one of our grassroots supporters. pic.twitter.com/f9hIPT6PTW
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 15, 2020
“That’s more money than I’ve ever raised in my whole life,” he said. “I’m really humbled by it.”
Over half of the money raised — $203 million — came from online donors, O’Malley Dillon said, and the campaign added 1.1 million new donors last month alone, accounting for 20% of their total of 5.5 million donors throughout the entire campaign.
The average contribution was $44.
Democrats easily outraised Republicans during the third quarter, beefing up their money advantage as polls increasingly indicate a potential blue wave on Election Day.
ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising website, processed $1.5 billion in donations spanning the July-September period.
Small-dollar donors gave over $750 million in September alone. To compare, GOP fundraising site WinRed processed over $620 million in donations during that same time period.
Democrats taking on Republican senators in races deemed “lean Democrat” or “toss-up” are also dominating their opponents in the fundraising game.
There is at least one bright spot when it comes to Republican fundraising down the stretch of the election.
The pro-Trump super PAC Preserve America raised just over $83 million in the third quarter, according to Federal Election Commission records. T
he fundraising success was largely off of $75 million in big money contributions from casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and his wife Miriam.
Adelson is plotting a last minute spending blitz in support of Trump and that he was eyeing up to $50 million in contributions.
He ended up giving $37.5 million to the super PAC last month.