Outside groups supporting Donald Trump’s presidential bid have spent far more money in recent months than groups working to re-elect Democratic President Joe Biden, according to a Reuters analysis of campaign finance records electoral.
Pro-Trump groups have spent more than $25 million since Mr. Trump clinched the Republican nomination on March 6, according to Federal Election Commission records, compared with more than $15 million spent by Mr. Trump’s allies. .Biden during the same period.
MAGA Inc, the largest pro-Trump super PAC, will report Thursday that it had $93.7 million in the bank at the end of May, up from $33 million at the end of April, according to a person with knowledge of the group’s finances who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Both camps have devoted most of their recent spending to attack television ads, as they try to influence the small slice of American voters who will determine the outcome of the Nov. 5 election.
Mr. Trump’s allies say this spending blitz is aimed at countering Mr. Biden’s fundraising advantage. Mr. Biden’s campaign reported $84 million in the bank at the end of April, compared to Mr. Trump’s $49 million.
“There is an effort to strategically weaken Biden’s liquidity advantage,” said another MAGA Inc.-affiliated official who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Trump’s fundraising deficit has been compounded by court battles that have driven up his legal bills and made him the first U.S. president to be convicted of serious crimes.
Mr. Biden, 81, and Mr. Trump, 78, are neck-and-neck in national opinion polls, although Mr. Trump has a slight advantage in states that could determine the winner of the election.
The two campaigns, which declined to comment, are due to provide updated campaign financing figures on Thursday.
Unlike political campaigns, super PACs are not subject to any fundraising limits, but they are not allowed to coordinate their ad buys with the candidates they support. They must declare their expenses shortly after making them.
MAGA Inc. spent about $18 million to help Mr. Trump’s campaign, largely on a barrage of television and digital ads that attacked Mr. Biden’s immigration policies and argued that he is too old to serve a second term.
In contrast, Future Forward, the largest super PAC supporting Biden, reported new spending to the FEC since March 6 totaling less than $1 million, despite having $57 million in the bank at the end of the month of April.
A senior Democrat with ties to the group, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he would spend heavily in the final months of the election, as he did during the contest of 2020, when Biden defeated Trump.
Another Democratic super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, has spent more than $11 million so far.
Pat Dennis, the group’s president, said it focuses narrowly on female voters by running ads on issues such as abortion rights in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. battlefield.
“We are focusing on the summer and laying the groundwork for those who will take over in the fall,” he said.
