Donald Trump’s campaign reported raising $130 million in August — a whopping number that is still unlikely to close the money gap with Vice President Kamala Harris.

That total includes money received through joint fundraising committees, as well as Trump’s official campaign and the Republican National Committee. Harris has not yet released a similar number for August. Full reports covering August for campaigns and party committees are due Sep. 20.

Trump’s operation said it had nearly $300 million cash on hand at the end of the month, down from $327 million the prior month as campaigning continues to pick up heading into the final months of the election.

“These fundraising numbers from August are a reflection of that movement and will propel President Trump’s America First movement back to the White House,” Brian Hughes, Trump campaign senior advisor, said in a statement.

Trump’s August total is notably lower than the nearly $139 million his operation raised in July — when it was buoyed by the Republican National Convention — and less than the $210 million that his team raised in August 2020, when he was running as the incumbent.

Trump’s campaign overtook that of President Joe Biden in fundraising after the former president’s New York conviction in late May spurred massive fundraising. But Democratic donor enthusiasm for Harris quickly propelled her past Trump, with the Biden-turned-Harris operation more than doubling Trump’s July fundraising total.

In a memo on Sunday, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said that Harris’ operation had brought in $540 million since she entered the race — a total that is likely to keep them comfortably ahead of Trump.

Donald Trump — and establishment Republicans not named Kevin McCarthy — mostly got what they wanted on Tuesday night.

Elections across five states Tuesday were largely low-turnout affairs, but they’ll help shape the future of Congress. Voters who cast their ballots helped select a new U.S. representative in Ohio, picked battleground contenders whose races could help determine control of Congress in 2025 and settled safe seat grudge matches in a long-running fight over the makeup of the House GOP conference. But there was one constant across the Republican primaries: Trump remains the kingmaker.

Some of the races set Tuesday night are already drawing high levels of spending, including the huge Senate race between Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown in Nevada and a trio of battleground House seats in the state. And Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, the rare Trump-seat Democrat, also learned his general election opponent on Tuesday in another race where outside groups have already reserved millions of dollars in ad time for the general election.

Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s down-ballot elections.

McCarthy’s revenge tour is off to a bumpy start

Millions of dollars weren’t enough to take down Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), the first of the “Gaetz Eight” to face a primary.

Outside groups affiliated with McCarthy, whom Mace and seven others voted to oust from the speakership, invested heavily in Tuesday’s primary to give Mace some payback. But that jockeying couldn’t even force her into a runoff: She easily earned a majority of the vote, finishing with an almost 30-point margin over her biggest challenger, former gubernatorial candidate Catherine Templeton.

The next stop on McCarthy’s revenge tour is next week in Virginia’s 5th District, where Rep. Bob Good is fighting for his political life against state Sen. John McGuire. And although Mace’s win in the face of such significant opposition could be a reassuring sign for the rest of the McCarthy detractors, Good doesn’t have one of Mace’s key assets: a Trump endorsement.

The former president threw his backing behind McGuire, shunning Good after he initially endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. Plenty of Good’s colleagues aren’t on his side, either, due in part to the House Freedom Caucus chair’s habit of supporting primary challengers to incumbents. McGuire has a fundraising advantage over Good, and there is heavy spending from outside groups to oust the incumbent.

But Good does have the support of the Club for Growth — which played a part in boosting Mace to victory on Tuesday. Mace’s win also demonstrated how difficult it is to remove an incumbent: No member of Congress has been defeated by a non-incumbent challenger yet this cycle.

Republican Reps. Eli Crane (Ariz.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.), who also voted to strip McCarthy of the gavel, also have primary challengers later this summer. Those races have yet to see any significant activity, although a group in McCarthy’s orbit has begun advertising against the incumbents.

Trump — and establishment Republicans — had a good night

Candidates who got the coveted Trump endorsement all won their races on Tuesday. And it was a good night for the national party committees, which have sought to get the former president on board with their preferred candidates.

In Nevada, Brown — an Army veteran — coasted to the GOP nomination for Senate, besting Jeffrey Gunter, the former Iceland ambassador under Trump. Brown came up short in the state’s Republican Senate primary in 2022 but was endorsed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee this time, and — after a push from Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.) — got the Trump endorsement in a Truth Social post after the former president’s Las Vegas rally on Sunday.

Gunter’s campaign never got much momentum, and the easy win means Brown comes out of the primary with few bruises and $2.5 million in his campaign account as of a few weeks ago. He will face Rosen in the general election.

In addition to Mace’s victory, another endangered South Carolina Republican who was endorsed by Trump eked out a win on Tuesday. Rep. William Timmons narrowly defeated a primary challenge from state Rep. Adam Morgan, who ran to his right. Timmons benefited from more than $1 million in ads from establishment-aligned groups and relied on Trump’s backing in the closing stretch of the campaign.

In Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, where Republicans are again seeking to knock off Golden, former NASCAR driver-turned-state Rep. Austin Theriault cruised to victory over fellow state Rep. Mike Soboleski. Theriault was endorsed by both Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson. He will face Golden in a district that Trump won handily in 2020, but where Republicans have struggled to mount a close congressional campaign.

In North Dakota, the Trump-endorsed Rep. Kelly Armstrong won big over Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Miller had the endorsement of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who has been floated as a possible vice presidential pick for Trump. But Armstrong, who has experience winning statewide in the at-large congressional seat, had the backing of Trump and the state Republican Party.

And in the race to succeed Armstrong, Trump and Burgum both backed Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, who defeated Rick Becker, a former state legislator. He was supported by the Club for Growth and the House Freedom Caucus’ political arm, and was on the opposite end of spending from a super PAC looking to block potential rabble-rousers.

Democrats continue to overperform in special elections

Few expected much of a contest out of Tuesday’s special election in the deep-red Ohio’s 6th Congressional District, where Trump won by nearly 29 points in 2020.

Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli and Democrat Michael Kripchak — an Air Force veteran recently working as a waiter — faced off for the chance to replace former Rep. Bill Johnson, who stepped down earlier this year to helm Youngstown State University.

But the race looked close for several hours after the polls closed. Rulli ultimately won, with the final margin likely to be a bit more than 9 points — a Democratic overperformance of nearly 20 points.

It is the latest example of Democratic candidates dramatically exceeding expectations in down-ballot special elections this cycle. In April, now-Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-N.Y.) won a special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District running about 6 points ahead of Biden’s 2020 performance in the district. In February, now-Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) flipped a seat previously held by disgraced former GOP Rep. George Santos. And Democrats have pointed to other special state legislative victories in states such as Pennsylvania and Alabama as signs of party momentum.

Of course, special elections are very different from general elections. Turnout is far lower: in Ohio’s election on Tuesday, about 60,000 votes were cast, compared with 280,000 in the same district in November 2022. Still, Ohio is a pivotal state for control of the U.S. Senate this year, as Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown faces a tough reelection battle on the ballot in a presidential year.

Democrats will take any positive signs in the state, and they certainly got one on Tuesday.

Former Army Capt. Sam Brown easily won the GOP nomination Tuesday to challenge Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen in Nevada, another victory for national Republicans in their effort to set up their preferred matchups in swing states this year.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee backed Brown from the get-go, and he had been widely expected to win. But Jeffrey Gunter, a dermatologist and former ambassador to Iceland under former President Donald Trump, self-funded a campaign that became a thorn in the national GOP’s side in one of several races that will help decide control of the U.S. Senate.

An Army veteran, Brown was nearly killed in Afghanistan in 2008 after his unit was struck by an improvised explosive device; he survived with severe burns on 30 percent of his body and visible scarring and was awarded a Purple Heart. He later launched a business providing medication to veterans.

Brown previously ran for Senate in Nevada in 2022, losing the GOP primary to former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who went on to lose to Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in one of the closest races in the country that year. This time, Brown had early national backing to go with his own strong fundraising. And he got a last-minute endorsement from Trump on Truth Social shortly after Trump rallied supporters in Las Vegas on Sunday — infuriating Gunter.

The NRSC’s support of Brown served as an example of Chair Steve Daines’ efforts to influence primaries in potentially competitive states, a response to frustrations that the party lost winnable seats in 2022 in part because they fielded candidates widely viewed as weak. In addition to Brown, the party committee backed Tim Sheehy in Montana, with Daines encouraging Trump to do the same and effectively boxing out Rep. Matt Rosendale, who briefly ran for the seat. And Daines issued early statements of support for Senate candidates including Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania, who ended up drawing no challengers, and former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan, who eventually drew a Trump endorsement as well.

In Nevada, Brown still faces a steep challenge as he takes on Rosen, a first-term senator from the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. Her campaign reported having more than $10 million cash on hand as of late May, compared with $2.5 million for Brown.

Democrats have prepared for months to take on Brown, and Rosen’s campaign released an ad last month going after him on abortion rights. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released another spot Tuesday night characterizing Brown as a “MAGA extremist” and highlighting comments he made in 2022 suggesting support for reopening Yucca Mountain to store nuclear waste.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has become a fundraising juggernaut in recent years, raising more money for candidates than any similar organization this cycle as part of its mission to back candidates who support Israel.

It’s the rare political organization that still garners support from Republican and Democratic donors while supporting candidates from both parties. But its primary focus has been leveraging its weight in competitive Democratic primaries, spending millions to boost moderates over progressives who have been critical of Israel.

That has made AIPAC the biggest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year, according to a POLITICO analysis of campaign finance data — and drawn outrage from the left over what it sees as GOP meddling in Democratic contests.

Nearly half of AIPAC donors to Democratic candidates this year have some recent history of giving to Republican campaigns or committees.

Criticism from the left has intensified as the partisan politics around U.S. support for Israel have shifted in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, and its mounting civilian casualties, have led even Democrats who have long favored Israel to question whether the U.S. can continue its level of support.

AIPAC still sees support for Israel as an issue that transcends partisanship. And its focus on Democratic primaries comes as it tries to ensure voters in blue districts elect Democrats who are aligned with its vision for supporting Israel.

“AIPAC donors are single-issue donors,” said Doug Forand, a strategist working with the campaign of George Latimer, a Democrat whose challenge of progressive New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman has drawn more support from AIPAC than any other campaign this cycle.

Forand noted that most of the AIPAC donors to the campaign are Democrats, “but for those who are not, this may be the first time they've given to a pro-choice, pro-LGBTQIA+, pro-labor, anti-gun Democrat, but their goal is simply to protect Israel's right to exist and they are donating to ensure that can happen.”

But progressives see AIPAC’s form of support for Israel as out of step with Democratic voters, particularly in the liberal districts where the group is directing the most funds. A partisan gap in support for Israel has grown dramatically in recent years, with growing numbers of Democrats questioning what was once a bipartisan position. Democrats are now more likely to say they sympathize with Palestinians than Israelis, driven in part by low levels of support for Israel among young voters.

“AIPAC can’t actually claim that they represent Democrats and Republicans in the same way. That veneer of bipartisanship is gone,” said Beth Miller, political director for Jewish Voice for Peace Action, a nonprofit that advocates for Palestinian rights and has been at the forefront of calls for a ceasefire.

Supporting the most conservative candidate ‘who can win’

Long a nonprofit lobbying organization that championed U.S. support for Israel, AIPAC’s explicit entry into electoral politics is relatively new. For years, the group’s endorsements were used by various aligned PACs that sent money to candidates or spent independently. But AIPAC launched several groups of its own during the 2022 election cycle, including a super PAC. It also began to bundle money for AIPAC-endorsed candidates, collecting donations that it then sends to campaigns. It quickly became the biggest bundler of any lobbying group, sending more than four times as much money as any similar PAC.

“We are proud to engage in the democratic process in a bipartisan way to help elect candidates who support the US-Israel relationship,” Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesperson, said in a statement. “Candidates from both parties should welcome the engagement of pro-Israel activists because Americans overwhelmingly stand with the Jewish state. In fact, those who object to our participation only represent a small, extremist fringe.”

With a bipartisan donor base, AIPAC stands out for how much money it sends across party lines — a rarity in an era of deep polarization.

Only about 2 percent of this cycle’s donors to Democratic candidates or through the Democratic giving platform ActBlue have also given to Republicans over the past few cycles, POLITICO’s analysis found. But 46 percent of donors who have given to Democratic candidates via AIPAC this cycle have given to Republicans since the 2020 cycle.

For Republican donors, giving to Democratic candidates in primaries helps ensure more moderate, pro-Israel candidates win in deep-blue seats where the general election is all but certain to be uncompetitive, and financial support for GOP candidates would be a waste.

“Under the William F. Buckley rule of politics, I want to support the most conservative person who can win,” said Eric Levine, a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition who has donated to Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). “And Ritchie Torres is the most conservative person who can win in the Bronx, and he is right on the issue of Israel and antisemitism in the United States.”

Another RJC board member, Gabriel Groisman, recently gave to Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.). He said there were just a small number of Democrats “who are standing up for not just the state of Israel but against antisemitism in a strong way here,” including Torres, Moskowitz and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.).

“It’s important for all American Jews to support them especially if they’re in Democratic stronghold seats to make sure that those seats won’t be occupied by radical far-left Democrats,” said Groisman, an attorney and former Bal Harbour mayor.

AIPAC has a particular focus on competitive Democratic primaries

Candidates who receive money through AIPAC fit into one of a few categories. There are staunchly pro-Israel Democrats like Torres and Gottheimer. There are members of congressional leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

There are also Republicans supportive of Israel, some of whom face competitive races, like Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), or Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who recently fought off a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a pro-gun YouTuber with a history of antisemitic statements.

And some of the top recipients are moderates challenging progressive incumbents in Democratic primaries. In addition to the Bowman-Latimer race, AIPAC is backing Wesley Bell, who faces Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) in Missouri’s 1st district in August.

While the moderate Democrats who receive money through AIPAC tend to draw some Republican support anyway, the money they get through AIPAC is far more likely to come from donors with a history of giving to Republicans than the donations their campaigns receive directly.

AIPAC has raised more money for Latimer than any other candidate — a bit over $1.6 million through the end of April from nearly 1,800 donors, according to the group’s campaign finance filings. About 40 percent of those donors had previously given to Republicans via AIPAC or WinRed, compared with just 10 percent of Latimer donors who didn’t give through AIPAC.

"AIPAC and its Republican megadonors are targeting me because I stand up for our community's democratic values — from a ceasefire to abortion rights and gun violence prevention — against Donald Trump's MAGA extremism,” Bowman said in a statement.

Competitive Democratic primaries are also the biggest target’s for AIPAC’s affiliated super PAC, United Democracy Project, which has already spent $19.8 million in them this year, including $9.3 million in the Bowman-Latimer race. That makes it by far the biggest outside group in Democratic primaries, with more money flowing from UDP than the next 10 biggest spenders combined. (The super PAC has also spent in a handful of GOP primaries, dropping $3 million total.)

That has infuriated progressives, who see AIPAC’s and UDP’s involvement in the Democratic primaries as a form of Republican meddling and have sought to contextualize it as part of a broader war on progressives. Bowman and Bush both represent safe Democratic districts that President Joe Biden won by more than 40 points, are leading progressives as members of the "Squad," and have been at the forefront of calls for a cease-fire in Gaza.

“AIPAC is using this issue as a way to attract Republican dollars, to then try to oust to a broader progressive agenda as well,” said Miller, of Jewish Voice for Peace Action. “The strongest voices for Palestinian rights in Congress right now are aligned with a broad range of progressive issues.”

Shifting partisanship around support for Israel

Progressives argue pro-Israel Republican donors are particularly wrong to try to influence heavily blue districts amid growing Democratic discontent with Israel’s war in Gaza.

Even many establishment Democrats now say the U.S. should put some conditions on its support for Israel amid rising civilian casualties. A poll commissioned by the Working Families Party, which backs Bowman, found in March that a majority of voters in New York’s 16th Congressional District said they were more likely to support a candidate who favored a cease-fire in Gaza.

“As the Israeli government moves farther and farther to the right, that is the policy that AIPAC is advancing in Congress. And that is just not where Democratic voters are,” said Usamah Andrabi, spokesperson for Justice Democrats, a progressive group backing Bowman and Bush that has frequently squared off with AIPAC. “That's where the Republican members of Congress are.”

There are signs AIPAC is concerned about being seen as a partisan entity.

The group put out a digital advertisement campaign last month featuring testimonials from Democratic candidates it has backed, including Jeffries and Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), and highlighted its support for Black, Hispanic and Asian American Democrats. Patrick Dorton, a spokesperson for AIPAC’s super PAC, pointed to a memo touting AIPAC’s support for Democrats.

AIPAC has raised more money for Democrats than any other PAC, the memo reads, adding that the group raised far more for members of the Progressive Caucus than Justice Democrats or J Street. (Left unsaid in the memo: The group has also raised more for Republicans than any other similar organization.)

“We are committed to a bipartisan model. Our donors understand that support for Israel is good for Democrats and good for Republicans but most importantly good for America,” Dorton said in an interview. “They are willing to cross party lines to demonstrate their commitment to bipartisan support for Israel.”

About the analysis

The analysis is based on Federal Election Commission filings from AIPAC, the ActBlue and WinRed donation platforms and individual campaigns.

AIPAC reports its fundraising for candidates as “earmarked” contributions; those numbers are as of April 30, the most recent data available.

Donor histories were assigned based on past contributions to Democrats and Republicans through AIPAC, ActBlue or WinRed going back to the 2020 election cycle. That may provide a slight undercount of cross-party giving because of a small number of donors who may have given directly to a campaign in the past. In addition, while ActBlue, WinRed and itemized donations represent the vast majority of fundraising, a small percentage of donors are not visible in FEC data because they give small donations directly or through other platforms.

Donors were identified by their full names and ZIP codes. That creates a small amount of error in matching donor histories because of, e.g. donors moving addresses, changing names or having the same name as others in the same zip code.

Former President Donald Trump once declared California a “symbol of our nation’s decline” — but he sure likes its cash.

A week after he was convicted in a wide-ranging hush money trial, the former president is making a fundraising swing through the West Coast with stops in San Francisco — his first visit to the city in more than a decade — and Los Angeles. Trump is already raking in cash and trying to close the fundraising gap with President Joe Biden. His campaign and the Republican National Committee said they raised $141 million, while an associated super PAC took in $70 million, in May.

Trump’s visits to San Francisco, Beverly Hills and Newport Beach over the next three days for private events are expected to bring in millions. Top tickets for the Thursday fundraiser, hosted by Silicon Valley venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya and David Sacks and his wife, Jacqueline, at their palatial “Billionaires Row” home overlooking San Francisco Bay, went for $500,000 per couple. The event is expected to rake in at least $12 million, according to a person familiar with the fundraiser.

The fundraiser is for the former president’s Trump 47 Joint Fundraising Committee, which sends the first $6,600 from each donor to his campaign, with the rest of the money going to his Save America leadership PAC, the RNC and 42 state parties.

Trevor Traina, Trump’s former ambassador to Austria and a personal friend of Sacks, said tech donors in particular have been driven by recent policy decisions from the Biden administration over things like regulation and crypto policy. Just last week, Biden faced criticism from the crypto community when he vetoed legislation that would have rolled back an SEC guidance on crypto accounting.

“You look at the biggest companies here, every one of them is getting sued from Apple to you name it. It’s like the frog boiling in hot water,” he said. “People who normally are heads down focused on business have come to the conclusion that it's time to get involved.”

Vice President Kamala Harris also paid her home state of California a visit this week to attend a fundraiser in downtown San Francisco and Oakland, and was met by pro-Palestinian protests. Trump is expected to face protesters as well, with a giant three-story-tall inflatable Trump chicken being launched in the Bay area, according to local reports. 

Trump’s West Coast swing comes on the heels of the guilty verdict, but also at a time when presidential fundraising typically accelerates the most, with donors tuning in more as the general election campaign kicks off in earnest. In 2020, Trump’s campaign fundraising doubled from May to June and continued to grow as the summer went on.

The massive cash haul since the verdict should help Republicans continue to cut into what had been a significant fundraising advantage for Biden and the Democratic National Committee. April was the first month where Trump and the RNC outraised their Democratic counterparts, but Biden and the DNC still had a major advantage in terms of cash on hand — $146 million to $88 million as of the end of the month. Both sides also still have some money in joint fundraising committees.

Shaun Maguire from the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital wrote on X that he donated $300,000 to Trump in the hours after the guilty verdict. “The timing isn't a coincidence.”

Aides say the former president has been dialed in on fundraising — whether it is making personal appeals to donors over the phone or turning up the charm offensive at intimate, big-ticket dinners.

Just hours after his guilty verdict was handed down from the judge, Trump made his way uptown to a private dinner with a small group of some of the biggest donors in Republican politics to collect millions for his super PAC. The dinner was hosted by billionaire Pepe Fanjul and was attended by Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman and supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis.

Catsimatidis said Trump was in "high spirits" at the intimate fundraiser, also attended by Eric Trump, and the former president asked the attendees about current events and who should be his vice president.

Some of Trump’s top surrogates have been drumming up donations as well. On Wednesday, his son Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle appeared at a fundraiser with former Trump administration official Cliff Sims in Alabama, and they are expected to host another fundraiser for Trump in London later this month. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s former director of National Intelligence, hosted a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, last week while Trump was tied up in court.