2024 Presidential Race Begins To Heat Up Ahead Of Republican Debates

Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis led the 2024 Republican field in fundraising, reflecting their polling positions so far. Only one other candidate, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, raised more than $5 million in individual contributions.

Other GOP candidates in the lower tier of polling have been ramping up their small-dollar donor operations in order to fulfill the Republican National Committee's donor threshold to qualify for the first debate in late August. The party requires candidates to have 40,000 unique campaign donors and 200 donors per state in at least 20 states or territories.

Meanwhile, President Biden's campaign announced he raised $72 million, in conjunction with his joint fundraising committee and the Democratic National Committee. He entered July with a substantial cash on hand amount: $77 million. The president has only been a candidate since April 25, when he announced his reelection, so his fundraising reflects just over two months of the second quarter.

Below is a snapshot of what the campaigns reported raising in the second fundraising quarter.

Democrats

President Joe Biden

The Biden-Harris campaign announced Friday it has raised $72 million dollars from April to end of June 2023 and revealed a total of $77 million cash on hand, which it says "represents the highest total amassed by a Democrat at any comparable point in history." In a video also released Friday, campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told supporters ""Americans know the stakes in this election — and our broad, diverse coalition powered by grassroots donors is going to send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House to finish the job."

The sum –-- which was raised in tandem by the campaign and DNC joint fundraising committees — was the result of 38 campaign-hosted fundraisers and additional grassroots contributions. The Biden-Harris campaign says "97% of all donations were under $200 and the average grassroots contribution was $39." President Biden tweeted from his personal twitter account on Friday, "To all the grassroots donors who pitched in a few bucks at a time—thank you. This campaign is powered by you. And with your help, we're going to finish the job."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Environmental lawyer and 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised about $6.3 million since launching his campaign in April. According to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission on Saturday, his campaign spent $1.8 million and has $4.5 million cash on hand. Fundraising totals by American Values 2024, the super PAC supporting Kennedy, will not be known until later this month.

Marianne Williamson

Author Marianne Williamson reported $798,757.08 raised in the quarter, with an additional $120,000 personal loan. Their filing also showed she has $270,736 of debt, which is double her cash on hand number of $104,990.

Republicans

Donald Trump

Trump's joint fundraising committee, which splits funds into his official campaign and his political action committee "Save America," raised over $35 million from April through June, with $15.1 million going to the official campaign. The PAC won't have to report its fundraising sums until the end of July.

The super PAC has previously paid for Trump's legal bills. In 2022, Save America paid for roughly $16.5 million in "legal expenses" according to federal campaign records.

Ron DeSantis

DeSantis' campaign raised the second most out of the GOP field, with $20.1 million in the first six weeks since launching his campaign in late May. This includes the $8.2 million his campaign said he raised in the first day of his campaign and a $351,933 transfer from a "Draft DeSantis 2024 Fund." But the campaign also reported spending $7.8 million.He entered July with $12.2 million cash on hand, but $3 million of that can only be spent in a general election.

DeSantis' campaign held at least 25 small dollar fundraisers across the country through June, according to a CBS News analysis. The fundraisers, and the campaign's online fundraising page, allow donors to contribute the max amount ($3,300) for both the primary and the general election.

"Never Back Down," the super PAC backing DeSantis, announced it has raised $130 million since launching in early March. This includes an $82.5 million transfer from the coffers of his state political committee account, "Friends of Ron DeSantis." Before DeSantis launched his run, the PAC raised money into a separate "draft" committee to transfer to his official campaign. That pool of donations complied with federal donation limits. On June 1, the "Draft DeSantis 2024 Fund" transferred $351,993.43 worth of donations to the DeSantis campaign.

Mike Pence

Former Vice President Mike Pence raised just $1,168,732 in the first three weeks of his presidential campaign. A pro-Pence super PAC "Committed to America" says it has raised $2,682,717 since launching in early May. Pence's haul is closer to candidates with a smaller national profile than the former vice president, though his late entry into the race in June meant only that fundraising in the first three weeks of his campaign occurred during the second-quarter window.

The Pence campaign spent $74,343 according to the filing.

A Pence adviser noted that while donors have been open to him, they still have outstanding questions about his path to victory. They also said that historically, direct mail fundraising has been Pence's fundraising strength and that the return on investment would take some time.

Pence said in Iowa on Friday he was confident he would qualify for the first presidential debate in late August, where candidates have to fulfill the RNC's debate threshold.

Nikki Haley

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley raised $7.9 million from April through June, according to the reports filed. During this second quarter, her campaign brought in a total of $5.3 million with the support from her affiliate committees that raised $2.6 million

Haley is raising money through three committees which includes her campaign, a joint-fundraising committee called Team Stand For America and a super PAC called Stand for America Inc. that supports her candidacy.

According to the report she filed Saturday, Haley's presidential campaign had about $6.8 million cash on hand by the end of June.

The super PAC Stand For America Inc. said Monday in a press release that it had raised about $18.7 million and had $17 million cash on hand in the second quarter. Official filings for super PACs are not due until the end of the month.

Last quarter, Haley's campaign was slammed after she announced she had raised $11 million in the first six weeks and then later the reports showed she had raised about $8.3 million after what appeared to be a double counting of some transfers between her committee accounts and her campaign account.

Tim Scott

Scott's reported $5.8 million raised between April 1 and June 30. Scott officially launched his campaign on May 19, but announced an exploratory committee in mid-April. The campaign says a majority of the reported haul came after he officially entered the race. On the first day after declaring his candidacy, his campaign says he raised $2 million.

Scott's campaign also reports spending $6.7 million and entering July with $21 million cash on hand, a bulk of that coming from funds leftover from his 2022 re-election campaign. Scott's campaign has spent more than any campaign (not PACs) on advertisements so far, with $5.8 million spent, according to data from AdImpact.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy reported raising $2.7 million from April through June, with over $440,000 of that coming from in-kind contributions he made himself. His campaign finance report also shows a personal loan of $5 million he made on June 28.

The campaign is also spending at a high clip, $8.08 million in the period. Ramaswamy reported $9 million cash on hand.

Chris Christie

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie raised $1.65 million since he launched his campaign in early June, closing out the second quarter with about $1.59 million cash on hand and zero in debt, according to FEC documents filed Saturday. Although he trailed other GOP candidates, he raised more than former Vice President Mike Pence this quarter.

The super PAC backing the former New Jersey governor, Tell It Like It Is PAC, said it raised nearly $5.9 million between June 6 and June 30. The campaign and the PAC raised a combined $7.5 million in 25 days.

Earlier this week on CNN, Christie announced that his campaign surpassed 40,000 unique donors and met the polling requirements to qualify for the first GOP primary debate on Aug. 23.

"Eight years ago when I ran after 35 days we had 5,000 donors after 35 days. This time we have over 41,000," he said on a radio show Thursday.

A few notable donors include Country First PAC, Adam Kinzinger's PAC, Anthony Scarmucci, Trump's former White House communications director, Haley Barbour, Former MS Governor and RGA Chairman, and Ken Mehlman, a former RNC chairman.

Doug Burgum

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum raised nearly $11.8 million in the last quarter. The former software company CEO lent his campaign $10 million and he raised $1.5 million in contributions since launching his presidential bid on June 7.

According to his campaign, Gov. Burgum is "quickly closing in on" the 40,000 individual small donors required to qualify for the Republican primary debate. In recent weeks, Burgum's team launched an unusual strategy to reach that goal—promising to send $20 gift cards to the first 50,000 people to donate at least $1 to his effort to reach the White House. Burgum has more than enough to fund the scheme according to his latest filing. The campaign had $3.6 million cash on hand at the end of June.

Asa Hutchinson

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has raised $743,000 with the support of his joint fundraising committee since his campaign launched in April. Subtracting spending, the campaign has about $503,000 cash-on-hand.

According to a press release, 6,444 people donated to his campaign from April through mid-July. Hutchinson needs more than 30,000 more unique donors by Aug. 23 to secure a microphone at the first primary debate.

Hutchinson complained about the donor threshold in recent weeks, calling it an "artificial" and "restrictive" requirement. But the former governor has projected confidence he'll reach the stage.

"We picked up momentum. We're going to make the 40,000 goal," Hutchinson said at a gathering of Iowa evangelicals on Friday.

Francis Suarez

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez's campaign raised $945,450 since he joined the 2024 GOP presidential race about a month ago.

Suarez, who has been the latest candidate to join the already packed Republican race, reported $898,850 cash on hand by the end of June.

In a tweet published Friday, Suarez said that a PAC supporting his campaigns has allegedly raised a total of over $13.6 million before the end of the reporting period – about two and a half weeks after he announced his campaign. While it's unclear which PAC Suarez is referring to in his tweet, one super PAC called SOS America that's supporting him reported $5.8 million cash on hand by the end of 2022.

Suarez, who is struggling to make it to the debate stage in August, added in the tweet that he "will meet the RNC limits for the first debate."

Will Hurd, Larry Elder, Perry Johnson

Former Congressman Will Hurd of Texas, who jumped into the race on June 22, reported $273,512 raised to the end of the month. Conservative radio host Larry Elder reported $467,531.11 raised, while businessman Perry Johnson reported $61,268 with a $3.18 million personal loan.