President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee raised a combined $125 million in the third quarter of 2019, a figure described by the AP as a presidential fundraising record.
Trump’s fundraising success should serve as a “giant wake-up call” to Democrats whose fundraising efforts have paled in comparison, warned Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama.
Trump’s campaign and the RNC said Tuesday that it had raised more than $308 million since the beginning of the year. That’s double the amount that Obama and the Democratic National Committee had raised at this point in 2011 during Obama’s re-election bid.
Trump’s fundraising efforts have also far eclipsed that of his potential 2020 Democratic rivals.
Not all Democratic candidates have released their third-quarter fundraising numbers, but Senator Bernie Sanders said this week that his campaign had raised $25.3 million over the past three months. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg raked in more than $19 million and California Senator Kamala Harris said her campaign raised $11.6 million.
The third quarter ended Monday, and all 2020 candidates will need to report their fundraising totals to the Federal Election Commission by October 15.
GOP officials have claimed that the impeachment inquiry into Trump “supercharged” the president’s fundraising efforts, NPR reported.
“In the 24 hours since news of Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement, [Trump’s] campaign and GOP have BLOWN OUT fundraising,” Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale declared on Twitter last week.
Parscale took to the social media site on Tuesday to celebrate the president’s fundraising figures.
The RNC has said that it will spend millions of dollars on TV ads and other campaigns to challenge the impeachment inquiry, as well as Trump’s Democratic rivals like former Vice President Joe Biden.
“We are investing millions on the airwaves and on the ground to hold House Democrats accountable, highlight their obstruction, and take back the House and re-elect President Trump in 2020,” GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
Pfeiffer said Democrats should be concerned about the very deep pockets of Trump’s campaign.
“This should be a giant wake up call,” Pfeiffer said on Twitter. “Trump is going to have more resources to deploy earlier and more aggressively than any candidate in history.”