Presidential debate 2020: Biden’s campaign raised $3.8 MILLION

Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign raised $3.8 million in the best online fundraising hour of all time at the conclusion of the first presidential debate Tuesday night. 

‘Joe Biden spoke directly to the American people tonight and they are responding,’ Biden’s Deputy Campaign Manager and Communications Director Kate Bedingfield told reporters in a late Tuesday night call. ‘We broke the single hour record for a campaign ever on ActBlue and we broke our own record and raised 3.8 million between 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock. 

The Cleveland, Ohio debate between Biden and President Donald Trump kicked off at 9 p.m. and wrapped up about 90 minutes later.   

As September wraps up this week, the fresh millions will likely help Biden and the Democrats continue their fundraising advantage, which would have been unheard of earlier this year. 

A message to a Trump campaign spokesperson on the president’s debate night fundraising numbers has so far gone unreturned. 

In August – the month Biden announced Sen. Kamala Harris would join him on the ticket and the Democrats held their mostly virtual convention – Democratic fundraising totaled an eyeball-popping $364.5 million. 

In comparison, Trump and Republicans raised $210 million. 

CNBC reported earlier this week that the GOP and Trump are trailing the Democrats and Biden by about $140 million in cash-on-hand. 

For months, Trump and Republicans had the fundraising advantage as Biden battled it out with other Democrats during the spring primaries. 

But the former vice president had the nomination essentially wrapped up by mid-March, around the same time lockdowns began due to the coronavirus pandemic.   

As CNBC reported, a big reason Biden now has the advantage is because of all of his virtual campaigning, including spending hours each week fundraising via Zoom.   

Trump, on the other hand, has continued to host large in-person rallies – which are more expensive – and also continues to fundraise in person. 

For example, he stopped at his Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. for under two hours on Friday to get a fundraiser in before jetting off to Virginia, where he had scheduled an additional rally.

Biden’s campaign not only pointed to the fundraising haul, but said voter registration interest also ticked up during Tuesday night’s presidential debate.   

‘You also heard the VP speak about IWillVote.com, call out IWillVote.com, that call-out led to the most concurrent users in the website’s history,’ she said.