Vice President Kamala Harris is raising more money than former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, but as polls between the two candidates tighten, will the funds be enough to move the needle?
Fifteen days from the election, the candidates are locked in a dead heat. Harris is narrowly maintaining her lead in the polls, with polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight putting the vice president 1.8 points ahead of her Republican rival, 48.2 percent to 46.4 percent.
However, Trump is gaining ground in key battleground states, with FiveThirtyEight putting the GOP nominee ahead in Pennsylvania today. The betting odds are also favoring Trump. RealClearPolitics bookmarks give him a 58.3 percent change and give Harris 40.8 percent.
The vice president's campaign has given Democrats a fundraising lead, having raised more than three times as much as Trump in September, according to Forbes.
Harris' combined campaign and affiliated groups have passed the $1 billion mark—likely the fastest in history that a candidate has hit that milestone, according to The New York Times.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns via email for comment.
In 2020, both Trump and President Joe Biden reached $1 billion in fundraising, but the money was raised over a much longer period of time. The Harris campaign raised $221.8 million in September alone, while the Trump campaign raised $62.7 million, according to Forbes.
An FEC filing shows that the Harris Victory Fund, which raises money for the Harris campaign and other Democratic groups, raised $633.2 million between July 1 and September 30.
Trump's National Committee JFC, which raises money for both Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee, took in $194.5 million during the same time period.
But does out-fundraising equate to an election win?
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton out-raised Trump two-to-one in the lead-up to the 2016 election, according to Politico. Clinton and her allies raised over $1.2 billion in the full cycle, while Trump and his allies raised around $600 million.
Despite the financial advantage, Trump won the White House, which reflects that fundraising does not necessarily equate to a path to the presidency.
Trump and Harris are now in the final sprint to the presidential election, which is set to be one of the closest in modern history. The polls are continuing to tighten.
This week, Trump will campaign in North Carolina, with Harris out in the Midwest, as they both look to win undecided voters ahead of election day.
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