Biden carries big cash advantage into final weeks of election
The two candidates for president filed campaign finance disclosures around Thursday’s debate in Nashville.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is carrying a cash advantage of more than $100 million over President Donald Trump into the final weeks of the election, according to newly filed campaign finance reports.
Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday revealed that Biden, the Democratic National Committee and two affiliated committees had $331.2 million in the bank as of Oct. 14, while Trump, the Republican National Committee and two of their fundraising affiliates had $223.6 million in reserve.
The filings also show that Biden continues to significantly outspend Trump. The president’s campaign raised $44 million and spent $63 million in the first two weeks of October, while Biden raised $130 million and dropped $145 million — more than $10 million a day during that time.
The RNC raised $38 million and spent $43 million, while the DNC raised $37 million and spent $59 million from Oct. 1-14.
Though Biden has taken a wide lead over Trump in the cash race, Trump has dismissed the idea that it would hinder his campaign. “We don’t need money, we have plenty of money,” Trump said during Thursday night’s debate. “In fact, we beat Hillary Clinton with a tiny fraction of the money” she raised.
The Biden campaign has used its cash advantage to swamp Trump on the airwaves. Biden has drastically outspent Trump on TV, airing $178 million more in TV ads from June 1 through Election Day, according to data from Advertising Analytics.
The vast sums of money are chasing a shrinking subset of the electorate, with over 48 million Americans already casting their ballots, according to data from the U.S. Elections Project. That’s equal to more than 35 percent of the total turnout in 2016, as voters both submit mail ballots in record numbers and rush to the polls for early in-person voting.
Several critical swing states are running ahead of the national pace as well. Michigan has already hit 39 percent of its 2016 turnout mark, while Wisconsin is at 38 percent of 2016 turnout. North Carolina has cracked 51 percent, and Texas is the national leader at more than 65 percent.