Harris Outspent Trump by Over $190 Million Last Month, But Is It Enough To Secure A Win In November For Her?
1min read As the U.S. election draws near, the competition between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris has entered its most intense final stretch.
On Sunday, financial disclosures submitted by the campaign team of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris showed that the team spent a huge $270 million on campaign advertising in September, far exceeding its competitor, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who only spent $78 million on campaigning in September.
Data also show that Harris's fundraising scale far exceeds Trump's: In September, Harris raised $222 million in campaign funds, while Trump raised only $63 million.
Harris Has A Funding Advantage
Since July of this year, when U.S. President Biden announced the end of his re-election campaign and Democratic Vice President Harris officially began her campaign, Harris's team has established a huge economic advantage.
In recent months, Harris has consistently raised more funds from small donors than Trump, and September was no exception. However, many wealthy individuals, including billionaire Elon Musk, have strongly supported Trump and have already invested significant resources into activities supporting Trump.
According to another document submitted to the Federal Election Commission, one of Trump's biggest ally organizations, the super political action committee Make America Great Again Inc., received a $25 million donation from conservative billionaire Timothy Mellon in September.
Timothy Mellon is a well-known heir to the Mellon banking family. Earlier this year, he had already provided at least $115 million to the super political action committee, which has concentrated most of its spending on television advertisements supporting Trump.
Harris's major supporters include Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and cryptocurrency billionaire Chris Larsen.
Harris's campaign team told the Federal Election Commission that at the beginning of October this year, her campaign account had $187 million, while Trump's campaign team reported $120 million.
Spending More ≠ Sure Win?
Although the data shows that Harris's team is spending a lot of money in the final sprint before the election, and is fully promoting her through pervasive television advertising, it may not necessarily bring victory to Harris.
Many polls show that the current situation of the two candidates is still neck and neck, including in key swing states that could decide the winner.
According to the polling data website FiveThirtyEight, as of October 19, in the national polls in the United States, Harris's poll support rate is only 1.8 percentage points higher than Trump's.
In fact, in the 2016 presidential campaign, the campaign funds raised and spent by Trump were also far less than those of his Democratic competitor Hillary Clinton, but Trump eventually defeated Clinton, which was a big surprise to the market.
