Fundraising lifts Democrats in final weeks of U.S. election campaign

Democrats hoping to capture the U.S. presidency and the Senate have seen a wave of cash from small donors come their way in the final months before the Nov. 3 election.

The Democratic fundraising organization ActBlue reported on Thursday that it collected $1.5 billion on its online platform from July to September, the most it has ever raised in a quarter.

By comparison, WinRed, a major Republican fundraising platform, said on Monday that its platform collected $623.5 million in the third quarter.

The Democratic sum includes donations made to several groups and political candidates as well as the presidential campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden, who looks poised to head into the closing weeks of the race with a financial advantage.

“We’ve raised more money than I ever thought we could,” Biden told donors at a fundraising event on Thursday.

Biden’s campaign reported on Wednesday that he and his party raised $383 million in September, a likely record for a presidential campaign that lifted the amount it has to spend to $432 million.

Republican President Donald Trump, who faces Biden in the White House race, has not yet reported a comparable figure.

The president’s campaign and the Republican National Committee pulled in $210 million in August. As of Aug. 31, Democrats had $466 million available to spend on the presidential race, compared with $325 million for Republicans.

Democratic fundraising was boosted after Biden’s selection of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate in August and later by the first televised presidential debate and the death of liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The biggest day of fundraising during the quarter on ActBlue’s platform was Sept. 19, the day after Ginsburg’s death, when groups on ActBlue collected $70.6 million.