The Republican National Committee brought in a record fundraising haul last month, setting a January record amid President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
Real Clear Politics reports that the RNC “raised $27.2 million last month, bringing its total this presidential cycle to $268.3 million, easily outdistancing Democrats’ $103.1 million.”
Fundraising has been notoriously difficult for the Democratic National Committee, which has struggled to convince potential donors that it will operate in the best interests of the Democratic base. Throughout December and January — and now into February and March — the DNC found it difficult to throw its support behind the frontrunner in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Sanders has had little trouble raising money on his own, without the DNC’s help.
The RNC appears to believe that Democrats — and, particularly, the House impeachment panels — were the key to raising money in the first month of 2020: ‘Record breaking support for this president and his policies continues to grow as we head full force into this presidential election year,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told RCP.
RCP notes that the RNC has around $76 million in cash on hand, despite spending some money deflecting attacks against President Donald Trump in the last half of 2019, and bankrolling candidates for office who are already facing difficult elections. They also have no debt — something the DNC has struggled with.
“Winning the White House has always been expensive, of course,” the outlet reported, projecting how much will be spent in 2020. “In 2016 Trump spent $398 million; Hillary Clinton, $768 million. Even then, that total was dwarfed by the 2012 race when Republicans and Democrats spent a combined $1.4 billion competing for the White House. With campaign spending already booming, 2020 is expected to surpass those total.”
President Donald Trump has also done well for himself raising funds. During the impeachment proceedings alone, the Trump 2020 campaign claims they raised an astounding $42 million, adding to the $103 million it reportedly has on hand, per Politico.
“Trump is set to begin the general election with a vast financial advantage over whoever emerges from the Democratic presidential primary,” the Washington, D.C.-based political outlet reported last month. “The RNC has seven times the amount of cash on hand as its Democratic counterpart, and the president’s quarterly figure tops Bernie Sanders, who brought in $34.5 million, and Pete Buttigieg, who raised nearly $25 million.”
The Democratic candidates combined have done very well, outraising Trump. But there’s no guarantee that those who donated to, say, former Vice President Joe Biden, will all that happy to switch their allegiance — and the address on their checks — to Bernie Sanders’ operation. In fact, that’s one of the DNC’s primary concerns: that donors, who value their partnerships with Democrats, will have a difficult time opening their wallets for an avowed anti-capitalist with eyes on nationalizing a number of industries in his first days in office.
Trump and the RNC also have yet to begin campaigning — and fundraising — in earnest. The president, unlike his Democratic opponent, has spent little during the primary season (he has no serious primary challenger), and has only begun to air ads in key states.