Much has been made in the media about every front-line Democratic presidential candidate and how much money they raised in the first 24 hours of their respective campaigns. It’s become the First Weekend box-office receipts of Washington politics. Every time a new Democrat announces his or her candidacy, the world breathlessly waits to see if they can outshine the ones that came before them.
Elizabeth Warren came in early, raising an anemic $300,000 in her first day. She was slaughtered by fellow progressive Bernie Sanders, who took in $5.9 million in his first 24 hours. Not to be outdone was Beto O’Rourke, whose Hollywood connections helped him rake in $6.1 million. And finally there was the big kahuna himself, Joe Biden, who raised a whopping $6.3 million in the 24 hours after he officially announced he was joining the race.
But if those numbers were impressive in their own way, they all fell far short of what President Donald Trump was able to do in the 24 hours after he announced his re-election campaign at a rally in Orlando.
“@realDonaldTrump has raised a record breaking $24.8M in less than 24 hours for his re-election,” tweeted RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel. “The enthusiasm across the country for this President is unmatched and unlike anything we’ve ever seen!”
Wow. Just look at that number and compare it to the ones above – the ones from the Democrats. That’s not just a blowout, it’s a nuclear bombshell, obliterating any optimism the Dems might have had going into this race. No, first-day fundraising receipts don’t tell the whole story, but when you combine Trump’s financial windfall with the 20,000 rabid supporters who packed the Amway Arena on Tuesday night…well, things are not looking good for Biden and his friends. There is literally no one on that side of the aisle who has anything close to this kind of enthusiasm behind them.
Now, there is another factor. Namely, the Democratic enthusiasm is split 21 different ways at the moment. Well, theoretically; not sure how much of that enthusiasm is actually being soaked up by third-tier candidates like Bill de Blasio and John Hickenlooper, but the point stands. Donald Trump is the man of the hour on the Republican side, Bill Weld’s invisible primary campaign notwithstanding. Anyone hoping to see four more years of Republican control of the White House is donating to Trump. That obviously makes a big difference all on its own.
Fundraising numbers may or may not spell out the results of the 2020 election, but we’ll take these hard facts any day over the often-biased and incorrect national polls. After all, the polls said Trump was going to get shellacked in 2016, and we all remember how that turned out. Any Democrat who isn’t getting nervous about Trump’s momentum is lying to themselves.
