The PAC leadership created by the former President Trump
Donald TrumpBiden reverses Trump’s last-minute attempt to freeze 0.4 billion programs Trump announces new legal impeachment team after reported matches Republicans struggle to unify toward the next election cycle MORE in the wake of his electoral loss in November, he raised nearly $ 31 million in the final weeks of 2020, giving him a stockpile of money that could help him maintain influence over the Republican Party in his post-presidency.
The PAC, called Save America, reported raising $ 30.9 million in the year-end period from November 24 to December 24. 31, according to new records from the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC). In that time, he spent only a fraction of what he earned, distributing less than $ 218,000 in merchant fees to the GOP’s online clearinghouse WinRed.
Save America entered 2021 with almost $ 31.2 million in the bank.
Records with the FEC show how the money flowed into Trump’s new political operation, as he and his allies continued to spread false and misleading claims that the 2020 presidential election was marked by widespread electoral fraud and systemic irregularities.
Over that time, Trump, his advisers and other conservative activists waged a high-level legal and pressure campaign in an effort to overthrow President Biden’s victory.
The pressure to reject the election results culminated last month with a demonstration outside the White House that turned into a violent insurrection by Trump’s supporters at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s challenges to election results and the resulting riot on Capitol Hill have divided Republicans, some of whom are pressing the Republican Party to quit Trump and his kind of conservative populism, while seeking to recover majorities in the House and Senate in 2022 White House in 2024.
Trump is considering another proposal for the White House in 2024. And while the leadership’s PAC money cannot be used to finance a possible campaign, it is a powerful tool to help him maintain control over mid-term Republican candidates 2022.
But the money being poured into Trump’s political operation, much of it from grassroots donors, is a sign of the ex-president’s fervent support among voters at the base of the Republican Party and suggests that he could yield political influence and financial on the party in the years to come.
The money accumulated by Save America in the final 2020 fundraising period represents only a small part of Trump’s political finances.
The Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a joint fundraising operation affiliated with the former president, reported raising $ 62.6 million in the last five weeks of 2020. This group is dividing its donations between the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Save America, with the majority of its contributions going to the Trump leadership PAC.
The joint fundraising committee transferred almost $ 78.4 million to the RNC and Trump’s political operations, according to the FEC files, including $ 30.5 million to Save America and $ 25.5 million to the campaign of Trump.
Even after these transfers, the Trump Make America Great Again Committee reported that it entered 2021 with almost $ 60 million in hand.
Trump’s own campaign raised about $ 27 million in late November and December, while the now former president was pushing to overturn the election results. Campaign spending, however, shows how he treated his efforts more like a public relations battle than a legal one.
The biggest expenses of the Trump campaign in the last five weeks of 2020 were with advertising. The campaign paid nearly $ 5 million to Harris Sikes Media, a limited liability company that the former president used to make ad purchases. The Trump campaign also made a payment of $ 4.4 million to American Made Media Consultants for online advertising.
Trump’s campaign spent significantly more on advertising and fundraising while he sought to nullify the election results than on legal services. In all, the campaign dropped about $ 10 million in attorneys and court fees, an amount not insignificant, but which is still insignificant compared to its public relations-related spending.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC), meanwhile, is starting 2021 in a much stronger financial position than it was a year ago. The group entered the new year with almost $ 38.8 million in the bank. In comparison, the DNC reported having only about $ 10.1 million in cash available for 2020.
In addition to the DNC’s war chest, there are more than $ 40 million reserved for the party, leftovers from its fundraising committee with the Biden campaign, The New York Times reported on Sunday. The DNC reported only about $ 3 million in debt, just about half what it owed in early 2020.
The recent selection of Jaime Harrison
Jaime HarrisonTom Perez ‘taking a look’ at the dispute over Maryland’s governor, the Democrats, formally elect Harrison as the new president of the DNC. Democrats see Georgia as a model of success in the south MORE how the new president of the DNC also raised Democrats’ fundraising hopes. Harrison, a former president of the Democratic Party of South Carolina, gained national prominence last year during his run for the Senate against the Sen. Lindsey Graham
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Harrison’s campaign was finally unsuccessful, with Graham winning reelection by a 10 point margin. But Harrison still managed to break fundraising records, raising more than $ 100 million for his Senate candidacy, a fact that fueled Democratic hopes of flooding the party previously penniless with new money.