Heidi Li Feldman

With ABC, https://abcnews.go.com/US/harris-trump-august-fundraising-fec-filings/story?id=113893128 , and the Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/20/kamala-harris-fundraising-advantage-trump/, both reporting today on Harris and DNC fundraising, time for another thread on why we must keep raising money for Harris.

The stories both lead with the fact that the Harris campaign raised 3 times what Trump did. This is obviously good, and a real achievement, but it does NOT mean Harris is now flush. 1/

Harris' fundraising triples Trump's in August, growing Democrat's warchest, FEC filings show

Harris and the DNC raised $257 million, as Trump and the RNC raised $85 million.

ABC News
Sep 21, 2024 at 8:20pmIvory for iOS
Show threadHeidi Li FeldmanSep 21, 2024
Harris and the DNC spent in August almost exactly the amount they raised (ABC). Bearing out what I have explained before, here, according to the Washington Post, is where the money is going: “The campaign spent more than $135 million on media buys and ad production; more than $6 million on air travel; about $4.9 million on payroll and related taxes; and $4.5 million on text messaging.” 2/
Show threadHeidi Li FeldmanSep 21, 2024
What the reporting mentions but does not make wholly clear is that the Trump campaign relies much more on outside money than the Harris campaign does and those figures are difficult to pin down. The Washington Post: “…the super PACs aligned with Trump are continuing to raise large sums from high-dollar donors as the two candidates enter the final sprint before November.” 3/
Show threadHeidi Li FeldmanSep 21, 2024

“[R]eports filed with the FEC on Friday night showed millions of dollars in contributions to Trump-aligned super PACs that are engaged in an intensive effort to cast Harris in a negative light just as many voters are learning about her background and credentials for the first time.” — The Washington Post

One Trump megadonor alone has given at least $115 million to a high profile Trump-supporting PAC, Make America Great Again Inc. Donor is Timothy Mellon of that Mellon family. 4/

Show threadHeidi Li FeldmanSep 21, 2024
To counter the big money boosting Trump, Harris is relying on her unprecedentedly large ground game and continued advertising and voter outreach. In the battleground states, the Washington Post reports, Harris has “at least 2,000 aides and 312 offices.” That is a lot of payroll, rent, utilities, and taxes. 5/
Show threadHeidi Li FeldmanSep 21, 2024
Would it be better if candidates didn’t need to raise so much money to reach voters? Sure. Would it be even better if the Dems didn’t need even more money to preserve ballot access and conduct GOTV in the face of the Republican Party’s nationwide voter suppression effort? Of course. But neither of those needs are going away before this election. And only if Harris wins is there a chance of voting rights being protected in law, perhaps reducing the need for campaigns to spend so much on that. 6/
Show threadHeidi Li FeldmanSep 21, 2024

Bottom line: it is imperative that we keep up our efforts to raise money to elect Harris-Walz 2024. If you can help, and would like to do so in community with others on Mastodon and in the fediverse, here’s the fundraising portal for Mastodon for Harris: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mastodon-for-harris.

All funds raised go directly and immediately to Harris for President. 7/7

Show threadRaccoon🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈Sep 22, 2024

@heidilifeldman
You know it is a little bit weird, I always give the advice to give donations early and not late, because they actually lose value as we get closer to election day, because there are less ads to be made, less people to show them to, less minds to be made up...

...but Trump and Vance some new and insane thing that they can use as an attack multiple times a week, so maybe this is the one time they actually can do heavy attack-ads in October.

Show threadJeri DanskySep 22, 2024
@heidilifeldman Just donated again! Thanks for making it clear why all these donations still matter.
Show threadHeidi Li FeldmanSep 22, 2024
@jeridansky Thank you!
Show threadDarwin WoodkaSep 21, 2024
@heidilifeldman ground game wins elections, no question. A good ground game gets out about 10% more voters.
Show thread@pineywoozle ‘s #3WordNoteSep 21, 2024
@heidilifeldman ⬆️ ⬆️ ⬆️ #HarrisWalz2024 #Vote & #Donate so others can be informed. #MastodonForHarris