The Joe Biden presidential campaign held three times more cash on hand than President Trump’s campaign by the end of September, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Biden’s campaign reported $177.3 million on hand, while the Trump campaign holds $63.1 million. The filings show a reversal from Spring 2020, when Biden clinched the Democratic nomination but started campaigning with $187 million less than Trump.
The Trump campaign has been forced to cut back on television ad spending in states including Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, while concentrating ad purchases in Arizona and Georgia. However, campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager pointed out that Hillary Clinton had also outspent Trump during the 2016 election season.
“The Trump campaign has all the resources we need going into the homestretch of this election,” Zager told the New York Times. “As Hillary Clinton proved when she outspent us two to one in 2016, no amount of money can buy the presidency.”
Both candidates have sought to mobilize large donors in the final stretch toward the elections. Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson’s wife Miriam has contributed $75 million toward pro-Trump advertising, while Marvel Entertainment chairman Isaac Perlmutter and wife Laura donated $21 million.
Biden, meanwhile, has drawn on donations from Wall Street figures even as he promises to raise the corporate tax rate and to raise personal taxes on anyone making more than $400,000 a year. Donors include Tim Geithner, the former treasury secretary and current head of Warburg Pincus, and senior officials from The Carlyle Group, JPMorgan Chase, Blackstone, and Kohlberg Kravis & Robert, according to CNBC.