New marketing campaign finance disclosures filed late Thursday and early Friday shed recent gentle on how massive cash, massive donors and massive expectations formed the ultimate stretch of the 2024 presidential race.
The 2024 cycle was set to be the costliest election on file, and the candidate that raises essentially the most cash normally wins the election.
That didn’t occur within the 2024 presidential race, at the same time as President Biden and Vice President Harris’s marketing campaign raised extra money than another presidential ticket in historical past.
That’s at the very least partly as a result of President-elect Trump outsourced his canvassing operation to tremendous PACs funded by rich allies, together with a number of billionaires who’ve been chosen to serve in his incoming administration.
Musk spent 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} boosting Trump since July
Tesla CEO Elon Musk spent greater than 1 / 4 of a billion {dollars} to assist elect the incoming president since he endorsed Trump in July following an assassination try.
New filings with the Federal Election Fee (FEC) present Musk gave a complete of $238.5 million to his pro-Trump tremendous PAC, America PAC, which led the cost to prove voters in battleground states.
Current filings additionally revealed a mixed $23.5 million he contributed to 2 different tremendous PACs supporting Trump.
Tremendous PACs, in contrast to campaigns, can increase and spend limitless quantities of cash. Whereas they’re legally not allowed to coordinate with campaigns, the FEC this spring relaxed coordination guidelines on canvassing particularly in response to a request introduced by a Democratic committee.
Trump took a bet on outsourcing his floor recreation to tremendous PACs, together with America PAC. It not solely seems to have paid off for him, but additionally for Musk, who will co-lead his “Department of Government Efficiency” effort to chop federal spending and cut back the scale of the federal authorities.
The Elon Musk Revocable Belief additionally gave $20.5 million on Oct. 25 to RBG PAC, a “pop up” tremendous PAC that spent almost that a lot on digital media defending Trump’s abortion stance in battleground states.
The tremendous PAC, which seems to reference the late Supreme Court docket justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, fashioned on Oct. 16, the day ultimate experiences had been because of the FEC earlier than the election. Due to the timing of its formation and the donation, the supply of the cash being spent by RBG PAC was not made public till 30 days after the election.
Ginsburg’s granddaughter Clara Spera beforehand publicly condemned the “appalling” advertisements, telling The Washington Submit that RBG PAC “has no connection to the Ginsburg family and is an affront to my late grandmother’s legacy.”
New filings additionally present Musk donated $3 million to the MAHA Alliance, a brilliant PAC that ran advertisements in swing states urging supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to assist Trump. Kennedy dropped out of the presidential race in August and endorsed Trump, and MAHA is a reference to his “Make America Healthy Again” tagline.
A number of Trump administration picks lower massive checks to tremendous PAC
Musk isn’t the one rich particular person who spent massive to spice up Trump within the 2024 election, with many others snagging key posts within the incoming administration.
Howard Lutnick, Trump’s choose to guide the Commerce Division and the CEO of the funding financial institution Cantor Fitzgerald, made an almost $3 million “in-kind” donations of inventory to the first pro-Trump tremendous PAC Make America Nice Once more Inc. (MAGA Inc.), in accordance with its Thursday night submitting with the FEC.
That’s along with the mixed $6 million Lutnick has contributed to MAGA Inc. between December 2023 and August 2024, in accordance with FEC information.
A number of different billionaire Trump administration nominees donated greater than $1 million to MAGA Inc. all through the 2024 election cycle, together with Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent, the founding father of the Key Sq. Group funding agency who donated a complete of $1 million; former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), who gave almost $2 million and was tapped by Trump to function administrator of the Small Enterprise Administration; and Linda McMahon, Trump’s Training secretary choose, who donated almost $20.3 million
Harris marketing campaign experiences no debt amid scrutiny
Within the aftermath of a disappointing election for Democrats, Harris’s marketing campaign rapidly acquired scrutiny over how her marketing campaign blew by means of greater than a $1 billion solely to lose all seven battleground states.
As of Nov. 25, the Harris marketing campaign reported $0 in money owed and obligations, as did her joint fundraising committee with the Democratic Nationwide Committee, the Harris Victory Fund.
Whereas the Harris marketing campaign got here below fireplace for potential debt as an intraparty blame recreation broke out, it’s not unusual for presidential candidates to have debt after an election.
Trump’s personal marketing campaign reported almost $11.4 million in money owed and obligations to the FEC as of Nov. 25. His unsuccessful 2020 marketing campaign reported greater than $11.3 million in money owed and obligations after the election.
The first pro-Harris tremendous PAC Future Ahead, nevertheless, reported $47 million in money owed and obligations as of Nov. 25.
Chauncey McLean of Future Ahead informed The Hill that the massive debt determine is simply an bill timing concern.
“This isn’t real debt – the invoices are already paid. It’s a quirk of the FEC reports and the requirement to list estimated ad spending on 24 hour [independent expenditure] reports, while we wait for a final accounting from our vendor in finance reports. On our next report, payments we’ve already made will be applied to this ‘debt’,” mentioned McLean.
MAGA Inc., alternatively, had $0 in money owed and obligations.
Cash doesn’t at all times win
The Harris marketing campaign reported elevating almost $1.2 billion as of Nov. 25, blowing previous Biden’s record-breaking 2020 haul of almost $1.1 billion by means of the identical interval.
Round $312.3 million of the 2024 complete was raised by means of the top of June, simply earlier than Biden left the ticket following his disastrous debate efficiency and endorsed Harris as his successor. The marketing campaign reported simply $1.8 million available as of Nov. 25.
The Trump marketing campaign raised $477.1 million throughout the 2024 election and nonetheless had almost $9.9 million in money available as of Nov. 25, in accordance with an FEC report filed Thursday.
His marketing campaign spent $462.4 million all through the 2024 election, an astronomical sum that was nonetheless dwarfed by the Harris marketing campaign’s spending.
The fallout from Harris’s loss and her marketing campaign spending — which included an eyebrow-raising $1 million cost to Oprah Winfrey’s manufacturing firm — rankled some inside the Democratic ranks.
Her loss kicked off a Democratic reckoning that’s trying to find solutions about who or what was finally answerable for the celebration’s loss throughout the 2024 election.
Political polls confirmed the race inside the margin of error, and Harris raised monumental sums of cash when she took over on the prime of the Democratic ticket.
Her entrance appeared to reenergize the bottom, although Harris had an unlimited process forward of her: reintroducing herself to thousands and thousands of People simply years after operating within the 2020 presidential major and persuading voters to decide on her inside a matter of months.
Democrats concede now that they’ve a model and messaging drawback, as voters ranked the economic system because the second most necessary concern (32 %) after democracy (34 %), in accordance with CNN exit polling.
Scrutiny over how the Harris marketing campaign managed its funds comes simply lower than two months earlier than members of the celebration choose their subsequent DNC chair.
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