Uncovering the Tactics Used by WH Hopefuls to Inflate their Fundraising Success

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Before polls or results come out, one of the best ways to figure out who will become president is by looking at the money they’ve raised. People donate money to those presidential candidates they think will do well – raising lots of it means a candidate has the resources to travel, advertise and hold events all around the country. The less money someone has, unfortunately for them, often times leads to dropping out of the race entirely.

The Republican presidential primary in 2024 is a very important event and the candidates want to seem even better than they are. They want to prove that they can raise enough money to challenge Donald Trump, who was President before them and was extremely good at raising funds. He wants to stay as the main leader of the GOP now.

Liam Donovan, a Republican political strategist, said that in such an early stage, having money is one of the few things people can use to compare themselves to the rest of the competition. He believes it’s like a popularity contest based on money.

Former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley was one of the first Republicans to challenge President Trump back in February. She chose not to tell people how much money she raised, which usually is what candidates do when they start a campaign. Her team also decided not to talk about her donations even when they turned a sexist and ageist comment made by CNN host Don Lemon into an opportunity to get more money by asking people for support.

Last week, Nikki Haley’s campaign said that she had raised an incredible $11 million for her run for president. That number is huge for anyone who is running against President Trump. Betsy Ankney, Haley’s campaign manager, said it was really impressive that she was able to get this money in just six weeks while also actively campaigning and talking with people in early voting states.

When people looked at her fundraising report on Saturday, it turned out that Haley (who used to be an accountant) had taken some shortcuts. In reality, she only raised a little over $8 million, not nearly as much as she claimed.

Haley’s campaign has three different committees for raising money. To get the total of $11 million, they counted the same money twice when it was moved from one part of their operation to another. This is not illegal and Haley’s team stands behind this way of counting.

Lots of politicians do it, including Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Marco Rubio. What they do is tell people that they’ve raised more money than they actually have – basically, taking credit for raising a bigger number than what’s true. For example in 2022 Trump said he’d raised $9.5 million when really he’d only gotten up to several million less than that.

“Kevin McLaughlin, a Republican strategist was surprised when he heard Tim Scott, South Carolina Sen., is taking part in the presidential race. He said everyone does this kind of thing. If Tim Scott continues to go for it, he will be entering with more money than any other contender ever has.”

Senator Scott has not had a challenging election in a long time, but he is still able to get lots of money. This is because his position as senator gives him access to people who can donate money across the whole country, which helps him build an enormous bank account.

Senator Elizabeth Warren raised a lot of money for her 2018 Senate re-election campaign by going to events and asking major donors for donations. She then changed her approach and asked the other candidates in the 2020 Democratic primary to also avoid fancy, expensive fundraising events because she thought it wasn’t nice.

Warren had prepared for her White House bid by setting aside $10.4 million from her previous Senate campaign. Meanwhile, Gov. DeSantis had $85.8 million leftover funds from his 2022 re-election campaign, but he is not allowed to use that fund in his presidential election committee due to federal laws.

A law known as “gray area” might allow money to be moved to a group that could help Governor DeSantis in his presidential campaign. This group, termed as “super PAC,” can spend unlimited money so long as they don’t do anything secret with the DeSantis’ presidental campaign.

At the same time, people connected to Governor DeSantis are collecting money for his possible run for presidency.

A political committee, named ‘Never Back Down’, has recently been started to convince a particular person to run for office. This group already has $30 million saved up, and it is using some of it to advertise this person and criticize Trump. The other part of their money will be given directly to the person if they decide to run for office.

Donald Trump’s campaign have received $18.8 million in donations between January and March this year. It also said they have made an extra $15.4 million after he was accused of paying money to someone who claimed to have a romantic relationship with him.

Trump denied these allegations and said the accusation against him is unfair and politically motivated.

The fundraising for the former president was powered mostly by small contributions from people, plus his ability to dominate what news is being talked about. According to Donovan, other candidates struggle to catch up with him in this way. Candidates who have done well and achieved high fundraising numbers can draw in even more money from wealthy Republicans looking for an alternative to Trump.

Donovan said that at this part of the process, people want to know what everyone else is doing and who looks like they’re successful. He added that people usually try to get behind someone who looks like a winner. Price reported this information from New York.