Former President Donald Trump (R) leads the field of Republican presidential primary candidates in fundraising with $57 million in cumulative receipts through Sept. 30, 2023. He is followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) with $31 million, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (R) with $27 million, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (R) with $19 million, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum with $15 million.
The chart below shows total receipts, contributions, and disbursements for each noteworthy Republican presidential candidate through Sept. 30, 2023. It only displays data for principal campaign committees, not candidate-affiliated PACs. Although Will Hurd, Francis Suarez, and Corey Stapleton have withdrawn from the race, they are included in the chart below since their campaigns were active during the reporting period.
In reports to the FEC, political campaigns must distinguish between receipts and contributions. All contributions are receipts, but not all receipts are contributions. Receipts is a broad term referring to all money that goes into a campaign account. While contributions from individuals often make up the majority of a campaign’s contributions, money can also come from other sources such as loans taken out by the campaign, dividends or interest on loans or investments made by the campaign, transfers of money from other political committees, and offsets to a campaign’s expenditures in the form of rebates or refunds.
Contributions from individuals make up a majority of seven active Republican candidates’ receipts. A majority of Trump’s receipts come from transfers from other political action committees (94%), and a majority of Binkley’s (89%), Burgum’s (87%), Johnson’s (86%), and Ramaswamy’s (57%) receipts come from loans from the candidate.
The following chart shows fundraising for major presidential campaigns broken out into contributions, transfers from other political committees, loans, offsets to expenditures, and miscellaneous receipts as of Sept. 30.
Incumbent President Joe Biden (D) leads the Democratic primary field in fundraising with $45 million in receipts. He is followed by author Marianne Williamson (D) with $3 million. Biden also leads in spending with $15 million in disbursements, followed by Williamson with $3 million.
The chart below shows total receipts, contributions, and disbursements for each noteworthy Democratic presidential candidate through Sept. 30, 2023. It only displays data for principal campaign committees, not candidate-affiliated PACs. Lawyer and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the Democratic primary on Oct. 9, 2023, and announced an independent presidential bid. His data is included in the chart below since he was an active candidate during the filing period.
Contributions from individuals make up a majority of Williamson’s fundraising, while a majority of Biden’s fundraising has come from transfers from other political committees. See the chart below for a breakdown of each Democratic candidate’s receipts broken out into contributions, transfers from other political committees, loans, offsets to expenditures, and miscellaneous receipts as of the October 2023 quarterly campaign finance reports.
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