Former President Donald J. Trump raised an additional $25 million at a fundraiser in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday. The new campaign cash haul is in addition to the $76 million raised by the Trump campaign in April, effectively closing the money gap with 81-year-old Democrat incumbent Joe Biden.
The dinner event, hosted by energy company executives Kelcy Warren, Harold Hamm, and Vicki Hollub, was Trump‘s second recent fundraiser with representatives from the oil and gas industries. A potential vice presidential pick accompanied Trump, Governor Doug Burgum (R-ND), who campaigned predominantly on energy policy during his short-lived campaign for the Republican presidential nomination last year.
Meanwhile, preliminary fundraising numbers for April suggest the Biden campaign has seen a significant plunge in donor support. The Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and several aligned PACs raised just $51 million last month.
In addition to Trump‘s fundraising haul, last month was the RNC‘s most successful month of the year, with an estimated $32 million raised. The DNC, however, narrowly outperformed them, raising an estimated $35 million.
Biden’s continued polling struggles and declining fundraising suggest that momentum in the 2024 presidential race is building behind Trump as the election cycle enters the critical summer months. Recent polls have shown the former Republican President leading his Democrat opponent in all but one of the crucial battleground states in November’s election. The fading Biden campaign has even led some political observers to speculate the octogenarian Democrat may be pushed aside as the party’s nominee sometime after the first presidential debate in June.