what we know about donors to Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

“There are two important things in politics. The first is money and I don't remember the second. » This famous quote from Marcus Hanna, the political ally of former American President William McKinley in 1896, still resonates in the American political landscape. For this 2024 presidential election, at least $2.5 billion was raised by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump to finance their campaign. A colossal figure compared to what we know in France.

In detail, donors are not only made up of middle-class Americans, who generally contribute a few dollars to support the candidate of their choice, but also billionaires who take advantage of it to expand their influence.

Who are the real donors to the American campaign? A few days before the vote, West France delved into candidates' campaign finance data.

2.5 billion dollars raised

The national campaign, local branches, political action committees, associations… In the United States, numerous channels exist for citizens to make donations to candidates in an election.

Until October 17, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris came out on top, with around $1.5 billion raised thanks to her supporters. The majority of this amount comes from official committees – called “PACs” (Editor's note: political action committee) in the United States – officially linked to a candidate's campaign.

Donald Trump, a billionaire himself, received $1 billion. Unlike his rival, donations from external organizations were higher for him than the sums of money obtained via official committees.

The figures are revealed by the OpenSecrets site, a database specializing in tracing money in political activities, which is based on raw data from the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC). The latter is run by a non-partisan non-profit organization based in Washington.

Even if these amounts are absolutely astronomical compared to what is practiced in France – which caps the expenditure of a presidential campaign at 23 million euros for the two candidates in the second round – the participation of the American population is in reality very weak.

During the 2020 ballot, only 1.8% of the U.S. adult population donated more than $200 to a political committee. A figure on the rise, however, because it represented only 0.7% of the population in 2016 and only 0.5% of Americans in 2012, according to OpenSecrets analyses.

California for Harris and Texas for Trump

Official fund committees are required to disclose the identity of their donors to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Name, state, employer, position, amount… Everything must be reported.

Apart from the billionaires who we will talk about later, the profile of small donors in the United States shows a real difference, depending on the candidates.

Using data from the FEC, we analyzed all donations made through the “Actblue” and “Winred” platforms, which are the two largest online fundraisers for Democrats and Republicans in the United States. United.

Over the first six months of the year, Kamala Harris received more donations from citizens residing in the northeastern states and on the California coast. For Donald Trump, it is in his traditional stronghold in Texas that he received the most donations.

View the amounts received by the two candidates and their difference in each state:

What is the profile of small donors?

As for the question of the origin of these donors – whose community weight can sometimes have a crucial impact in the final result of American elections – Asians and African-Americans chose Kamala Harris more while donations from Hispanics and Portuguese lean slightly more towards Donald Trump. An analysis carried out by the company L2, a non-partisan electoral data provider in the United States and regularly cited by the American press.

Donor professions scrutinized

Additionally, the social backgrounds of these donors also differ.

On the Democratic side, it is mainly “people who exercise intellectual professions, small traders, heads of small and medium-sized businesses and relatively well-off retirees”deciphers Romuald Sciora, director of the Iris United States Political and Geostrategic Observatory.

“On the other hand, we have a very low percentage of people from so-called disadvantaged backgrounds. Even though the Democratic Party is supposed to be the progressive party, representing the American left, it is essentially a party that is seen as elitist and urban.”continues the director.

For the Republican Party, we also find “a party of various academics and intellectuals. The heads of small and medium-sized businesses also take a more important place than among Democratic donors. The middle class is also much more numerous as is the very small middle class”adds the specialist.

By emphasizing that “in these last two categories, a very large number of people who have an immigrant background and who have been naturalized donate to the Republican Party. »

Having made donations himself, the specialist, who lives in New York, notes today that the phenomenon can sometimes border on cyberharassment.

“I receive seriously, 100 emails per weekend inviting me to make donations »smiles Romuald Sciora. “Each candidate, whether Republican or Democrat, adopts this aggressive policy with the hope of turning away potential donors or causing an addiction to donations. »

A dynamic boosted by special events

For the Democratic Party, the dynamic of these donations only really began since the candidacy of Kamala Harris.

On July 21, the day Joe Biden withdrew from the race in favor of his vice-president, the Actblue platform recorded a record number of transactions, with $27 million received during the day, according to the reported figure. with the FEC.

According to an analysis of New York Times 1.5 million new donors made contributions via Actblue during the first ten days of Kamala Harris' campaign. While only 680,000 have supported Joe Biden so far.

At the end of May, the conviction of Donald Trump also provoked enthusiasm among his supporters who invested tens of millions of dollars on the day of the verdict.

“Black money” is swelling

Billionaires prefer “Super PACs”. The latter were created in 2010, following a ruling by the American Supreme Court which made it possible to lift the ceiling on donations in an electoral campaign, in the name of freedom of expression.

It is thanks to these structures that Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, has invested $118.6 million since the start of the year, into his “America PAC” created to support Donald Trump. The figure rises to 132 million if we go back to 023.

“It is towards this PAC that several large traditional Republican donors and also new donors from the world of tech are turning,” says Romuald Sciora. “Beyond Elon Musk, today we see several major players in Silicon Valley turning to the Republicans, who seem, for them, to be the guarantors of non-regulation of their company,” explains the specialist.

The Tesla boss is not the only wealthy personality to pay huge sums to the Republicans. Timothy Mellon, a fierce opponent of the Democrats and heir to a banking and real estate empire, has paid them 197 million since January 2023. In particular via the Super PAC named “Make America Great Again Inc”, reveals an analysis of the Washington Post which is based on FEC reports.

Read also: VIDEO SURVEY. How Elon Musk is trying to swing the US election

Although U.S. federal law requires these “Super PACs” to disclose the identities of their donors, the actual source of these funds may be hidden behind contributions from nonprofit organizations and shell companies that are created to conceal the funds. financial transactions.

According to OpenSecrets, the share of these unsourced donations in campaigns has continued to increase in recent years.

It is also towards these groups that the wealthy businessman Bill Gates turned.

After decades away from politics, the Microsoft co-founder said privately that he recently donated about $50 million to a nonprofit that supports the vice president's candidacy Kamala Harris, reports New York Times .

Can these donations have a decisive impact on the result?

Certainly, these high amounts can have an impact on the final result. But this is not all-risk insurance. In 2016, Hillary Clinton raised nearly $600 million from the public for her campaign, compared to $350 million for Donald Trump.

“Even if the Republicans received fewer donations than the Democrats, their network of activists means that today it is impossible to know who will win the election”warns the director of the Observatory.