Former President Donald J. Trump leaned heavily on major Republican donors in March as his campaign and the GOP tried to bridge the financial gap separating him from President Biden, new federal filings showed Monday.
For much of the race, Mr. Trump relied on small donors — particularly those who give less than $200 online — to prop up his campaign. Most major donors abstained.
But in recent weeks, as Mr. Trump finished defeating his primary rivals and Mr. Biden and the Democrats gathered resources to raise funds, those donors opened their checkbooks to the former president.
In the last two weeks of March alone, a committee supporting Mr. Trump raised nearly $18 million, almost all of it from six-figure contributions. Mr. Trump and the GOP ended the month with $93 million on hand between all of their committees, his campaign said, having raised more than $65 million in March.
However, Republicans are lagging behind. In the first three months of the year, Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party together raised more than $187 million, his campaign said, including $90 million in March, ending the month with $192 million on hand.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has not provided a full account of its first-quarter fundraising. The two committees filed Monday said they raised nearly $90 million combined since January, but that doesn’t include money raised directly by the campaign or the Republican National Committee.
Monday’s filings with the Federal Election Commission were the first detailed look this year at the joint fundraising committees through which Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden raised the majority of their money. These committees, some of which can raise more than $800,000 from individual donors in consultation with the candidates’ parties, funnel funds to the campaigns themselves and also create national campaigns.
(Campaigns and the parties themselves file monthly reports, which do not include details of individual donors.)
The Biden Victory Fund, the president’s main joint fundraising committee with the party reported raising $121.3 million in the first three months of the year.
Top donors were Seth MacFarlane, creator of “Family Guy.” billionaire businessman Reid Hoffman; and attorney George Conway, a staunch Trump critic who until last year was married to Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump adviser.
The reporting period included Mr. Biden’s March 28 fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall, which campaign aides said brought in $25 million.
Trump 47 Committee Inc. — Mr. Trump’s new joint fundraising committee with the Republican National Committee — was formally incorporated with the FEC on Jan. 31. It said it raised $23.6 million in the quarter, including $17.8 million in the second half of March alone, largely from six-figure contributions.
Those gifts included $814,399 dated March 25 from Robert Mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who was a vital supporter of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign but was less committed to his 2020 campaign. Mr. Trump had courted Mr. Mercer and other donors in recent weeks.
Mr. Trump’s joint fundraising agreement with the RNC directs a portion of contributions to the Trump 47 Inc. committee. to a political action committee that pays his expensive legal bills. The first $6,600 donated goes to Mr. Trump’s campaign, and the next $5,000 goes to his Save America PAC, which last year spent more than $50 million on his legal expenses. The RNC and contracting states receive the remaining amount.
Other top-dollar donors to Trump 47 were Roger William Norman, a Nevada real estate developer who gave nearly half a million dollars last year to a super PAC supporting Mr. Trump, and Robert T. Bigelow, the Las Vegas aerospace magnate Vegas, who gave $5 million to the Trump super PAC in February.
Jeffrey C. Sprecher, the chief executive of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, also gave more than $800,000, as did his wife, Kelly Loeffler, who briefly served as a Republican senator from Georgia.
Joe Ricketts, the president of TD Ameritrade, also gave the maximum amount. Other major sponsors included Linda McMahon, the former pro-wrestling businesswoman. Phil Ruffin, the casino mogul. and Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets. All three also gave at least $1 million to the pro-Trump super PAC last year.
Mr Trump’s Save America joint fundraising committee – which had served as the primary fundraising vehicle during the campaign – raised $65.8 million in the first quarter of 2024 and ended March with $13.7 million in the hands.
