The big news about Kamala Harris’ record fundraising is that two-thirds of it came from grassroots first-time donations, not big-money elite donors.
The Harris campaign announced:
Team Harris announced that we raised more than $310 million in July, the largest donation of the 2024 election cycle, with more than two-thirds of the record-breaking contributions coming from first-time donors.
Today’s monumental support marks the best month of grassroots fundraising in presidential history. There is no question that this will be a close race, and while Vice President Harris herself has said she is the underdog, Team Harris’ massive grassroots-driven fundraising in July shows that our campaign has momentum.
It’s a stark contrast to how Donald Trump and his campaign performed in July, doing little but making shillings for themselves and wealthy donors as his campaign battled in battleground states. We are still far behind in building infrastructure that will be critical in the future.
In July, 60% of all Harris donors were women. The campaign also saw a tenfold increase in donations from Gen Z and an eightfold increase in donations from Millennials. Harris appears to have activated key parts of the Democratic voting coalition.
The reason for this focus on grassroots donations is that political campaign donations are one of the most accurate predictors of voter turnout. People who donate to campaigns also vote.
The 2024 election initially looked set to be a low-turnout base election. This assumption has been turned upside down. With the addition of Vice President Harris, voter interest and enthusiasm are at an all-time high. The emergence of new faces in the election not only energized Democrats but also made the American people pay more attention.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of Society of Professional Journalists and American Political Science Association
