OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign took in tens of millions of dollars during the third quarter, even exceeding his high second-quarter performance as he continues to surge ahead of his 2024 Republican rivals.
Trump’s campaign announced last week that it raised $45.5 million in the third quarter, The New York Times reported.
The campaign reported having more than $37.5 million in cash on hand, a release stated. In addition, Trump’s campaign said that GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is in second place behind Trump in most polls, only had $5 million in cash on hand for the ongoing primaries, the Times added.
“DeSantis’s campaign raised $15 million in the third quarter. Robert Bigelow, who donated $20 million to a DeSantis-allied PAC, said in August he would stop donating if DeSantis didn’t moderate his policy positions,” The Daily Caller noted further, citing the Times.
In the release, the Trump campaign announced: “In an impressive testament to the overwhelming grassroots support behind President Trump that will lead to dominating victories, close to $36 million of the total cash on hand is designated for the primary.”
“While DeSanctus’ fundraising, like his poll numbers, has seen an exponential drop even from July, President Trump outraised his impressive $35 million haul in Q2 (which doubled Q1 fundraising) by more than $10 million,” the Trump campaign said.
“The Q3 numbers are even more impressive considering the Summer months are usually when most campaigns experience lagging fundraising support,” the Trump campaign added. “President Trump and his campaign have completely shattered that notion.”
Meanwhile, as Trump becomes a juggernaut once again and appears, at this time, to be a shoo-in to win the GOP nomination, other surveys have him moving even with or past President Biden in some of the most critical swing states.
Voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were polled by Bloomberg/Morning Consult, and their results showed that Trump was ahead of Biden by 4 percentage points due to widespread disapproval of the vice president’s handling of the economy.
Trump is leading Biden in Georgia by 5 points, Arizona by 4 points, North Carolina by 4 points, Wisconsin by 2 points and Pennsylvania by 1 point. Biden leads Trump by 3 points in Nevada, and the two candidates are running even in Michigan, according to the survey.
In the seven swing states, 49% of voters said Bidenomics — the term the White House has used to describe Biden’s economic agenda– was bad for the economy.
In those seven states, 46% of undecided voters think Bidenomics is bad for the economy, while 41% either don’t know enough about it or have no opinion.
A survey found that 14% of voters who said they would vote for the president in 2020 now say they would vote for Trump, are undecided, or will not vote at all.
Only 9% of Trump voters in 2020 said they would vote for Joe Biden in 2024, while 91% of Trump voters in 2020 said they would vote for Trump again.
Trump’s team has been quick to point to the latest poll showing the former president ahead in swing states, taking it as evidence of the candidate’s strength in the general election despite claims from some of his rivals that Trump can’t beat Biden.
The Biden campaign was more skeptical, pointing to the midterm and special elections over the past two years in which Democrats performed better than expected as evidence that polls are not always accurate predictors of election outcomes.
“Predictions more than a year out tend to look a little different a year later. Don’t take our word for it: last year, Bloomberg, who published today’s poll, predicted a ‘100%’ likelihood of a recession, only to say days ago that the U.S. economy is strong and “defying the odds,’” Kevin Munoz, a Biden campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. “Or a year out from the 2022 midterms, when they similarly predicted a grim forecast for President Biden.”
