The big news about Kamala Harris’s record fundraising is that two-thirds of it came from grassroots first-time donations, not big elite donors.
The Harris campaign announced:
Team Harris announced that we raised more than $310 million in the month of July, the biggest haul of the 2024 election cycle, with over two-thirds of the record-breaking haul coming from first-time donors.
Todayâs monumental show of support marks the best grassroots fundraising month in presidential history. There is no question that this is going to be a close race, and while Vice President Harris herself has said she is the underdog, Team Harrisâ massive grassroots-driven July fundraising shows the momentum is with our campaign.
Itâs a stark contrast with how Donald Trump and his campaign have spent July, doing little more than shilling for himself and wealthy donors as his campaign still lags far behind in building the infrastructure in battleground states that will be critical down the stretch.
Sixty percent of all Harris donors in July were women. The campaign also saw a tenfold increase in donations from Gen Z and an eightfold increase in donations from millennials. Harris seems to have activated key pieces of the Democratic voting coalition.
The reason why so much focus is placed on grassroots donations is that donating to a political campaign is one of the most accurate predictors of voter turnout. People who donate to campaigns also vote.
The 2024 election was originally looking like it would be a base election that would feature lower turnout. That assumption has been turned on its head. The entry of Vice President Harris in the race has generated an unprecedented spike in voter interest and enthusiasm. Getting a new face in the election not only energized Democrats but got the American people to pay more attention.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
