Candidates, empty your bank accounts.
In the final lap of the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump have started spending enormous sums on advertising and voter contact, according to financial disclosures that were filed on Thursday.
Combined with their main allied super PACs, the Harris and Trump operations spent an extraordinary half-billion dollars in just 16 days. The Harris and Trump campaigns combined to spend about $265 million during that period, and the main pro-Harris super PAC, plus the four main pro-Trump super PACs, spent roughly an additional $260 million.
The reports offered a close-to-current view of the financial fortunes of Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump, capturing activity from Oct. 1 through Oct. 16. They are the last filings with the Federal Election Commission before Election Day.
Fund-raising and spending compared with 2020
Here is a look at what the new finance reports can tell us about the state of the race.
Heavy spending, but a huge Harris cash advantage
The point of all the money, of course is to spend it. And spend it they have.
Ms. Harris spent $166 million during that 16-day period, almost equal to what she spent in the entire month of August; $130 million of that was spent on media.
Alongside her allied committees, she raised $182.6 million in early October, according to a New York Times analysis of campaign-finance reports. She and President Biden together have raised $1.8 billion with the party.
Mr. Trump and his allied committees raised about half Ms. Harris’s total, $92.1 million, during the 16-day window. He crossed the $1 billion threshold in the amount he has raised with the party since announcing his run for president in November 2022, according to The Times’s analysis.
The money flowed out rapidly, though. Mr. Trump’s principal committee spent $100 million in the 16-day period, more than he spent in June, July and August combined. He spent $88 million of that on advertising.
He entered the second half of October with $36.2 million on hand. Ms. Harris had three times that — $119 million — leaving her in a much better financial position for the final three weeks of the election.
Democrats have built a bigger organization in their parties, too. The Republican National Committee, as of Oct. 16, had $48 million on hand. It transferred $23.8 million to state parties in battlegrounds and paid salaries to about 355 people during that period. The Democratic National Committee had about $30 million on hand after transferring $44 million to state parties and paying about 740 people.
The biggest Democratic group’s biggest donor? Unknown.
The largest Democratic super PAC, Future Forward, prioritizes late ad purchases, and much of the money it has raised came late in the cycle. Just on Wednesday, for instance, the group disclosed a mammoth $82 million ad purchase.
The group raised $89 million in the first half of October, or almost $6 million a day. Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder of Facebook, chipped in $25 million during the period, on top of his prior $13 million, making him the largest disclosed donor to the group in the cycle.
But the largest actual donor remains a mystery. During early October, $40 million of the $89 million raised came from the super PAC’s allied dark-money group, whose donors remain secret, continuing a trend of secrecy that has defined the group’s rise.
Elon Musk’s Trump budget: $119 million
Over just 16 days, Elon Musk spent $57 million to support Republicans.
Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, put an additional $43.6 million into his super PAC, America PAC, between Oct. 1 and Oct. 16, increasing his total pro-Trump spending to a staggering $119 million. Mr. Musk is now the second biggest pro-Trump donor, climbing above Miriam Adelson, the Las Vegas casino magnate, but below Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon banking fortune.
Mr. Musk also disclosed a $10 million check to the Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC for Senate Republicans, which is led by allies of Senator Mitch McConnell. That donation was Mr. Musk’s largest by far in his career, outside of the checks he cut to his own super PAC this year.
Mr. Musk gave $825,000 to a super PAC in support of a political ally, Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas. Mr. Musk also contributed $2,339,600 to the Sentinel Action Fund super PAC, which, like Mr. Musk’s organization, is doing voter canvassing in Pennsylvania. The leader of that group, Jessica Anderson, suggested on social media that Mr. Musk’s precise amount was to close the group’s exact funding gap in Pennsylvania. “Thank you @elonmusk for catching the early vote/ absentee vision!”
Other donors cutting checks in early October to pro-Trump super PACs included Dick and Liz Uihlein, leaders of the ULine shipping supply company ($9.5 million); Jan Koum, a WhatsApp co-founder ($5 million); Diane Hendricks, a roofing magnate ($5 million); Ron Cameron, a poultry company C.E.O. ($2 million); the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen ($2 million); and Safra Catz, the Oracle C.E.O. ($1 million).
Mr. Andreesen, who runs a prominent Silicon Valley firm with Ben Horowitz, famously split earlier this fall on the presidential race. Mr. Andreesen made his donation to support Mr. Trump’s group on the same day, Oct. 7, that Mr. Horowitz donated $2.5 million to a pro-Harris super PAC.
Albert Sun contributed reporting.
