Harris Has $404 Million to Spend as Strong August Fundraising Puts Her Ahead of Trump 

A lawn sign surrounded by American flags in support of US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Berkley, Michigan, US, September 5, 2024. (Reuters)
A lawn sign surrounded by American flags in support of US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Berkley, Michigan, US, September 5, 2024. (Reuters)
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Harris Has $404 Million to Spend as Strong August Fundraising Puts Her Ahead of Trump 

A lawn sign surrounded by American flags in support of US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Berkley, Michigan, US, September 5, 2024. (Reuters)
A lawn sign surrounded by American flags in support of US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in Berkley, Michigan, US, September 5, 2024. (Reuters)

Kamala Harris's presidential campaign and the Democratic Party raised $361 million in August, leaving her with a clear cash advantage over Republican rival Donald Trump with two months to go before Election Day, the campaign said on Friday.

It said the August haul left Harris with $404 million in cash on hand at the beginning of September.

Trump's campaign team said on Wednesday that it and the Republican Party raised $130 million in August, leaving $295 million cash on hand at the end of the month.

The two candidates will spend more than $1 billion in this campaign, breaking records, according to regulatory filings. Trump and Harris are using the money to run advertisements and build get-out-the-vote operations in the closely contested states that will decide the election.

The fundraising totals, which are reported to US election regulators, are closely watched for signs of momentum ahead of the tightly contested Nov. 5 election.

The totals do not include the money raised by outside groups supporting each candidate.

A key test for both candidates will come at their televised debate on Tuesday, the first since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris as his successor on July 21.

Harris' candidacy has re-energized Democrats and donors, and she has had a surge in opinion polls.

Three-quarters of the 1.3 million new donors to Harris in August did not contribute in the last presidential election in 2020, her campaign said. It said more than six in 10 donors in August were women, and nearly one in five were registered Republicans or independents.

Nonetheless, polling averages show it is a tight race in the battleground states that will decide the election, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.



A Second Term? Blinken Plans to Be with Kids 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the end of his one day visit to Haiti at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port Au Prince on September 05, 2024. (AFP)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the end of his one day visit to Haiti at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port Au Prince on September 05, 2024. (AFP)
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A Second Term? Blinken Plans to Be with Kids 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the end of his one day visit to Haiti at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port Au Prince on September 05, 2024. (AFP)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the end of his one day visit to Haiti at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port Au Prince on September 05, 2024. (AFP)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday he hoped to spend more time with his children next year, hinting he would not pursue another term as the top US diplomat.

Blinken, who has two young kids, has pressed on with a punishing travel schedule that has only increased over the past year, with nine tours of the Middle East since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

"As to my own future, all I'm looking at right now is the balance of this administration in January," Blinken told reporters in Haiti, where he was the first secretary of state to visit in nearly a decade.

"I can tell you from having spent some time over the last week on a bit of a break with my kids, I will relish having a lot more time with them," he said.

It is highly unusual for a secretary of state to stay on past an election. The last to do so was George Shulz, who joined in 1982, halfway through Ronald Reagan's first term, and remained after the Republican's reelection.

Blinken is known as a highly trusted aide to Joe Biden, advising him as a senator, vice president and president.

But speculation that Blinken, 62, might consider staying dissipated when Biden in July decided to give up his campaign for a second term after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump revived questions about the 81-year-old president's age.

Blinken, a lifelong Democrat, has praised the record of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running against Trump, but he is not known to be as close with her as he is with Biden.