RNC and Trump raised $60 million in January and have more than $200M cash on hand
President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee jointly raised more than $60 million in January, setting the groups up with more than $200 million in cash on hand heading into the general election.
The immense figures give Trump a strong financial advantage over Democrats, whose donors are more splintered as the party sorts out a crowded primary field. In contrast to Trump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders outpaced Democrats when he raised $25 million in January. Trump’s reelection organization has fundraised more aggressively than any previous presidential reelection campaign at this stage, allowing the campaign to spend early on advertising and field efforts months before Democrats pick their nominee.
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Within hours of the fundraising announcement, the President left the White House to visit his campaign staff and RNC officials at the campaign’s headquarters in Rosslyn, Virginia — the first time Trump has crossed the river into Virginia to visit the campaign’s offices there.
A campaign official told CNN the visit had been in the works for a while and that the President was greeting campaign staff and RNC officials and getting a general update on the effort to reelect him. While the Trump campaign is technically headquartered in New York, the campaign’s senior officials and the vast majority of its staff works out of the Rosslyn office.
All told, pro-Trump entities have raised more than $525 million since the start of 2019, which Trump campaign and RNC officials attributed in part to the impeachment process and say is positioning them for victory in November.
“The more Democrats smear President Trump, the more enthusiasm we see for him and his many accomplishments,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
Brad Parscale, the Trump campaign manager, said: “The Democrats’ shameful impeachment hoax and dumpster fire primary process have only contributed to the record breaking financial support for President Trump’s reelection. With President Trump’s accomplishments, our massive data and ground operations, and our strong fundraising numbers, this campaign is going to be unstoppable in 2020.”
The RNC confirmed the fundraising figures after The Associated Press first reported the numbers Thursday morning.
The RNC said the January fundraising haul more than doubled the Obama campaign and Democratic National Committee’s January 2012 haul of $29 million. At this time last cycle, the Obama reelection effort had $93.7 million in cash on hand.
The RNC also touted its volunteer training efforts.
“We already have 500,000 volunteers trained and activated, and this record-breaking support is helping us grow our grassroots army even more,” McDaniel said.
