Kamala Harris outraises Donald Trump in NY, including Long Island

WASHINGTON — A surge in contributions from Long Island and New York donors to Kamala Harris’ campaign after she became the Democratic presidential candidate put her ahead of Republican Donald Trump in the fundraising race, campaign finance filings show.

In the 11 days after President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race on July 21 through July 31, Harris raised nearly four times as much as Trump on Long Island, with $785,964, and 10 times as much in New York State, with $9.6 million, fundraising reports for July show.

That padded a lead in New York fundraising that Biden built in June before stepping aside, as Harris and Biden have raised $30.7 million to Trump’s $8.2 million in New York State through the end of July for their main campaign committees.

The fundraising reflects a national trend: The Harris campaign committee has raised $517 million and Trump’s campaign committee $268.5 million from January 2023 to July 31, 2024, the most recent date for which Federal Election Commission filings are available.

Harris also ended July with far more cash on hand nationally, with $220 million to Trump’s $151 million, reversing the Trump campaign’s previous cash advantage at the end of June before Biden dropped out of the race, the filings show.

New enthusiasm

Harris sparked renewed fervor among Democrats numbed by Biden’s dismal debate performance in June and concerns about his age, and has drawn new campaign contributors, according to political consultants, Democratic Party officials and political scientists.

"The fact that Harris outraised Trump on ‘purple’ Long Island by 4 to 1 is telling in terms of the enthusiasm pouring into Harris' campaign right now," said Christopher Malone, a political scientist at Farmingdale State College.

"The polls, the money and the voter registration all point to an undeniable fact that Harris is surging in a way that I would imagine the campaign didn't even expect," Malone told Newsday.

Harris jumped to a 14-point lead over Trump in New York at the end of July, up from Biden's 8-point lead in June, polls by Siena College found.  

Some state election boards have noted a bump in voter registrations, but the New York State Board of Elections said it will not release its updated list of registered voters until November. Instead, the board offered a different measure of voting interest: Online registrations peaked at 17,586 in July and 17,427 in August, which together nearly match the total of online registrations for the previous 11 months.

Nassau County saw about 10% more voter registrations during the July 21 to July 31 period this year, when Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate, than in 2020, according to registration figures provided by the county’s Board of Elections. But in August 2020, with Trump in office, the county registered 9,606 new voters. This year, it registered 6,769 new voters in August.

Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County and state Democratic Party, credited a mix of relief that Biden, 81, stepped aside and excitement over Harris, 59, and her vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, for the jump in contributions and voter interest.

He said some New Yorkers held back on donating money to the Biden campaign after his debate performance against Trump on June 27.

"I don't think that a lot of people who didn't give before thought that Joe Biden could win, and people like to invest in winning," Jacobs said. "They didn't see it as a winning enterprise before, and now they do."

He added, "I don't think they wanted Trump, but they didn't see Biden as a choice that was palatable because of his age. And I think they see Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as an exciting ticket."

An aide to New York Republican Committee chairman Ed Cox declined to comment. A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to questions about the campaign's fundraising in New York. 

Long Island piggy bank

Both presidential campaigns raised money at high-dollar exclusive events in the Hamptons in August with about two months to go before the Nov. 5 Election Day.

Trump attended a fundraiser on Aug. 2 at the Bridgehampton home of billionaire financier Howard Lutnick, who said it raised $15 million for Trump and the Republican Party. And Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, appeared at a Southampton fundraiser on Aug. 18.

In the last week of August, second gentleman Doug Emhoff raised over $3 million at fundraisers in Sag Harbor, Water Mill and New York City for the Harris campaign and Democrats down the ballot, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.

Supporters of both candidates have many avenues to contribute funds — the main presidential committees, the Democratic and Republican party committees, joint-fundraising committees and super PACs that are unconnected to the candidates but support them.

On Aug. 25, Jen O'Malley Dillon, the Harris-Walz campaign chair, said in a memo that "in just over a month since we launched our campaign," her team had raised $540 million through Harris for President, the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees.

Meanwhile, super PACs have raised $393 million to support Trump, according to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks political money.

But both campaigns also aim to collect smaller grassroots contributions, which Malone identifies as one of three measures of enthusiasm, along with polls and voter registration, for a candidate that would lead them to actually cast a vote.

The biggest flow of contributions from New Yorkers to Trump's main campaign committee came on May 30 and 31 after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult film star in 2016. For Harris and Biden, the largest wave of funds came after Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate. 

During the last 11 days of July, New Yorkers across the state contributed $9.6 million to Harris and $917,453 to Trump.

In that surge, about 26,000 Long Islanders donated $785,964 to the Harris campaign, with an average amount of about $365, while 10% of those contributors gave $1,000 or more, a Newsday analysis found.

Trump’s campaign collected $197,864 from just under 5,000 donors, with an average amount of $190, while about 2% contributed $1,000 or more.

Harris raised three to four times as much as Trump in both Nassau and Suffolk counties during that time, the Newsday analysis found.

Michael Dawidziak, a Bayport political consultant who works mostly with Republicans, called those fundraising numbers "a big disparity for Long Island."

"In Suffolk County, at least for now, Trump is holding the lead in the polls in Suffolk County. So, you would think this is good territory for him," Dawidziak said.

A Newsday/Siena College poll of likely voters taken at the end of July found that Trump led Harris 50% to 44% on Long Island, but that Nassau County residents gave Harris a 3-percentage point lead over Trump and Suffolk County likely voters gave Trump a 14-point edge over Harris.  

"In the last two presidential cycles, Trump has pretty much won one-half of Long Island," Dawidziak told Newsday. "He does better in Suffolk, and the Democrat does better in Nassau. And that's been the pattern that says that the money should be kind of evenly split."