Donations to Trump and Biden spiked after debate, new reports show

Joint fundraising committees for Biden reported their best fundraising day of the campaign on June 28, the day after the debate, among donors whose totals were itemized because they gave more than $200.

However, the total — around $5.6 million — was surpassed by the Trump campaign’s own best day this year. That came on his conviction in the New York hush money case on May 30, when his joint fundraising committees reported receiving $19 million from donors who gave above the $200 threshold.

Both campaigns are recalibrating after a tumultuous month. Republicans are gathered in Milwaukee for their convention in which they formally nominated Trump on Monday two days after he survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa.

Biden is still struggling to reassure jittery members of his party that he is the strongest candidate to top the Democratic ticket as even some of his allies worry that he is relying on advice from a shrinking circle of aides.

But the new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday night do not offer an up-to-date snapshot of the respective financial strengths of the two presidential campaigns. That’s because not all political committees were required to file on Monday, and the reports only cover contributions in the quarter ending on June 30, a few days after the debate. The two campaigns and their respective parties will file detailed monthly reports with the FEC on Saturday.

But current reports show that several prominent super PACs allied with Trump are flush with cash at a delicate moment for Biden. Some Democratic donors are threatening to withhold their contributions amid an intraparty debate about whether Biden should remain the Democratic nominee. Nearly two dozen congressional Democrats have called on him to step aside.

The Preserve America PAC, which plans to raise tens of millions of dollars to air television ads on Trump’s behalf, received its first $5 million donation from casino billionaire Miriam Adelson, the majority shareholder of Las Vegas Sands. Along with her late husband, Sheldon, Adelson donated $90 million to Preserve America during the 2020 presidential campaign.

The newly formed America PAC, which has been spending money on canvassing efforts, raised $8.75 million during the second quarter. Donors include Joseph W. Craft III, the president and chief executive of coal producer Alliance Resource Partners; Silicon Valley investor Douglas M. Leone; and former Tesla board member Antonio Gracias, wrote million-dollar checks, alongside the Lonsdale Enterprises company of Joe Lonsdale, a partner at the venture capital firm 8VC and a founder of Palantir.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss contributed $500,000. Many of the group’s donors are close associates of Elon Musk, who also plans to give money to the group, according to a person familiar with the organization who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive matters.

The Make America Great Again Inc. super PAC, an outside group closely aligned with the Trump campaign, said it raised more than $100 million in the second quarter.

Taylor Budowich, the group’s chief executive, posted on social media that the group had raised another $50 million on Monday, which was the first day of the GOP convention where Trump announced Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice-presidential pick.

MAGA Inc.’s largest donor is Timothy Mellon, the reclusive billionaire who has supported both Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The group has said it plans to spend more than $100 million on an advertising blitz throughout the summer and will file its monthly report on Saturday. It raised over $81 million across April and May, reports show.

The Patriot Legal Defense Fund, which was set up to help Trump and his allies with their legal bills, raised $2.6 million and spent about $900,000 during the second quarter of the year, according to a filing this week with the IRS. In a shift from previous quarters, the majority of the funds came from contributions of under $200.

In early July, the Biden campaign announced that it had raised $264 million in the second quarter across its coordinated political committees, including $127 million in June alone. The campaign also said it raised $38 million on the night of the debate and the weekend that followed. But many Democrats are worried that small-dollar donors will slow their giving as voters’ confidence in Biden has faltered.

In a brighter spot for Democrats, the party’s candidates in the seven most competitive Senate races raised more than their likely GOP rivals in the second quarter — reflecting the fervent desire of Democratic donors to ensure that they have a check on Trump’s power in Congress if he wins another term in the White House.

Four Democratic Senate candidates raised about twice as much or more as their likely Republican opponents, according to newly filed disclosures; one of them, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who’s running for an open Senate seat, raised more than three times as much as her likely Republican opponent, former congressman Mike Rogers.

But the key Republican super PAC involved in Senate races outraised its Democratic counterpart in the second quarter. Senate Leadership Fund, the Republican super PAC, raised $60.2 million — including $10 million checks from Adelson and Paul Singer — while Senate Majority PAC, the main Democratic super PAC in Senate races, raised $44.3 million.

SMP still has a cash advantage, with $124.3 million on hand to SLF’s $117 million.

Susie Webb, Faiz Siddiqui and Elizabeth Dwoskin contributed reporting for this story.