Donald Trump, Republican Party boost
fundraising in June
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[July 07, 2016]
By Ginger Gibson and Alana Wise
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump and
the Republican National Committee raised nearly $51 million for his
presidential campaign in June, after he launched his first aggressive
effort at raising cash, Trump's organization reported on Wednesday.
The most recent haul dwarfed the $3.1 million the Trump campaign
raised in May. That low number prompted widespread concern among
Republicans that the New York businessman, a newcomer to politics
who largely bankrolled his primary campaign, would be unable to
compete with Democrat Hillary Clinton's massive fundraising
operation.
For June, fundraising emails circulated by the Trump campaign
attracted $26 million, in addition to more than $25 million raised
in conjunction with the RNC through joint fundraising events in June
and the last week of May. The joint funds are intended to help both
Trump and candidates in other races, such as people running for
Congress, in the Nov. 8 election.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, personally contributed
$3.8 million in June, the campaign said, bringing the total
contributions for the month to about $55 million.
"We just started our fundraising efforts in the last week of May and
we are extremely pleased with the broad-based support in the last
five weeks for the Trump Campaign and Trump Victory," the campaign
said in a statement.
In June, Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, raised $68.5
million, including $40 million for her campaign and $28 million for
the DNC and state victory funds. She began July with $44 million in
cash on hand.
 While Trump's June total far eclipsed the candidate's past hauls,
Lisa Spies, a Republican fundraiser who worked for Mitt Romney in
2012 and raised money for Jeb Bush in the 2016 primary, said the
dollar count was much lower than the $106 million that Romney, the
party's standard-bearer in 2012, brought in during the same month
four years ago.
"This is his low-hanging fruit, and it’s good, I’m not putting it
down. But it needs to get much better than this quickly. He’s
playing a game of catch-up right now," Spies said.
Clinton's fundraising advantage has allowed her to build a vastly
larger campaign infrastructure.
Clinton already has extensive staff operations in the most important
battleground states and has begun to run paid advertising. Trump has
only a handful of staffers and has made no large television ad
purchases.
Trump beat 16 rivals in the Republican presidential race, but his
free-wheeling style and some of his campaign pledges, such as his
plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, have long worried
some in the party establishment and he has struggled to unify
Republicans behind him.
CLINTON'S SUPER PAC ADVANTAGE
The Super PACs supporting Trump, which are permitted to raise and
spend unlimited sums but are not allowed to coordinate directly with
the campaign, have also struggled to get organized. While there was
once a constellation of more than a dozen Super PACs backing him,
most of his support has consolidated around Great America PAC, which
is being run by veteran political operative Ed Rollins.
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Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a
campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., July 5, 2016.
REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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The PAC is on target to raise $10 million before the July 18 start
of the Republican National Convention, said Eric Beach, a top PAC
official. They have already seen an uptick in fundraising, bringing
in $5 million in June, doubling the May haul of $2.5 million.
Great America PAC is using that money to run television ads, and
plans to attack Clinton over her use of personal email servers
during her time as secretary of state.
The Super PAC supporting Clinton, Priorities USA, had raised $88
million by the end of May and had $51 million to spend. The group is
already running ads attacking Trump.
Trump got off to a slow start in fundraising, funding much of his
primary campaign with his personal wealth in loans that totaled
about $50 million. He announced last month he would forgive the
loans to his campaign, intending to signal to potential donors that
he would not use their funds to repay himself.
He held his first fundraiser in late May and had several in June,
including a high-dollar event in New York City and several
fundraisers in Texas.
Trump continues to promise to make contributions to his own
campaign. In June, he launched an online fundraising effort by
promising to match donations up to $2 million.
Trump and Clinton both use joint fundraising agreements with their
respective parties.
The agreements allow the candidates to accept checks larger than the
$5,400 limit that an individual can give to a campaign. Instead, the
larger donations are divided up among the campaign, the national
party and various state victory funds. All the money is then used to
help elect the presidential candidate as well as other candidates.
The campaigns and the political parties are permitted to coordinate
how they spend that money.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Conlin in New York and Emily
Stephenson in Washington; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)
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