Hillary Clinton continues to dominate the money race—now having raised more than $1 billion this election—thanks in large part to a cadre of wealthy donors sending tens of millions of dollars into super-PACs. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into television advertisements on her behalf as well as get-out-the-vote efforts in battleground states across the country. Even so, Clinton still has more cash in the bank heading into the final days of the campaign, giving her a significant advantage for mobilizing voters and getting her message out.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has relied mainly on his own wealth and millions of small donations to fund his campaign. He paid for his Republican primary victory mostly out of his own pocket, and only began actively soliciting outside funds in May. Since then, he's never closed the fundraising gap with Clinton. As of Oct. 19, he's put $56.2 million of his own into the campaign, leaving him with scant time to put in the rest of the $100 million he's pledged to spend.
On Oct. 27, campaigns and super-PACs filed their final pre-election reports on fundraising and spending with the Federal Election Commission. The period covers Oct. 1 through Oct. 19. Here's where the candidates stand:
Candidate Raised to Date* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $866.6M
Spent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $713.0M
Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $153.6M
Super-PACs Raised to Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $201.5M
Spent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $184.7M
Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $18.0M
Total Raised to Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,068.1M
Total Spent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $897.7M
Total Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $171.6M
Candidate Raised to Date* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $453.1M
Spent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $385.2M
Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $67.9M
Super-PACs Raised to Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $59.1M
Spent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $44.3M
Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $16.0M
Total Raised to Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $512.2M
Total Spent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $429.5M
Total Cash on Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $83.9M
The campaigns continue to raise money heading into the final days of the race, with Clinton's surrogates holding fundraisers and Trump's campaign mining its thousands of small dollar donors through digital outreach.
In the final weeks of the race, campaigns burn through their stockpiles of cash to mobilize voters. Clinton, who invested early in television ads and get-out-the-vote operations in battleground states, has expanded her map and ambitions, campaigning in Arizona, typically a reliably Republican state, and backing Senate candidates in close races in Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Trump, who relied on earned media (getting on TV without buying ads) through the primaries and digital ads over the summer, has increased his spending on television and cable ads in recent weeks. A Trump campaign official said they are targeting specific groups of Clinton backers with negative ads with the aim of lowering Democratic turnout.
Trump's fundraising has lagged far behind Clinton's, leaving him less money to work with in the final weeks.
Clinton's disciplined campaign strategy allowed her to build cash reserves while dominating the airwaves and building her infrastructure.
Trump began spending big on television in October, but continued to invest heavily in digital.
TOTALS AS OF OCTOBER 19
Clinton's biggest cost center remains air time, though her campaign has also invested heavily in personnel to staff field offices around battleground states, managing the get-out-the-vote operations.
TOTALS AS OF OCTOBER 19
TOTAL AS OF OCTOBER 27
Clinton and Priorities USA, the main super-PAC supporting her, followed President Barack Obama's 2012 strategy of blanketing the airwaves of battleground states all summer with ads. Trump's campaign, in contrast, only started spending heavily on ads after Labor Day, with most of the spending coming in the final weeks before Election Day.
Campaigns tend to pace their spending over many months and then burn through it rapidly to energize supporters ahead of voting days, such as the first primaries in January and the final weeks ahead of Nov. 8.
Clinton’s army of fundraisers, which includes sophisticated outreach to small dollar donors, hundreds of bundlers and big name surrogates including President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and her own husband and daughter, continue to provide her campaign with a flood of cash. Trump remains the biggest donor to his own cause, having given at least $56 million, but his fundraising operation is not nearly as deep or broad as Clinton’s.
Since securing the nomination, Trump has put about $8.5 million into his campaign. His small dollar donations are largely offset by the high cost of raising that money through direct mail.
Clinton’s campaign touts its small dollar donors, but it’s also gotten more than $147 million from those giving $2,000 or more. Her super-PAC has 50 contributors who've given it $1 million or more.
* Most recent data only covers October 1-19
* Includes loans and contributions from the candidate, transfers from party committees, rebates and refunds from vendors and other receipts.
The Republican National Committee outraised its Democratic counterpart for most of the 2016 election cycle, but the joint fundraising committees set up by Hillary Clinton have made sure that the Democratic National Committee had plenty of cash. In a bid to catch up with Democrats, the RNC invested heavily in big data, field offices and permanent staff to improve its ground game, which the Trump campaign is relying on to get out its vote.
The biggest spenders backing Democratic candidates, including progressive billionaires and labor unions, have given generously to super-PACs backing Clinton. Some of the GOP's biggest donors have directed contributions down ballot, although Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, the biggest supporters of Republicans in 2012, have given late money to a super-PAC supporting Trump.
Clinton’s top five backers combined have put more into the effort to elect her president than Trump has spent on his own campaign. Three of Trump's biggest donors didn't give until September, when he was edging up in the polls ahead of the first debate. Clinton's biggest donors have been contributing since the launch of her campaign 17 months ago.
* Includes donations to campaign committees, joint fundraising committees and allied super-PACs.