logo
Republicans Torch Democrats in June Fundraising as DNC Considers Election Loan to Cover Costs

Republicans Torch Democrats in June Fundraising as DNC Considers Election Loan to Cover Costs

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) faces mounting pressure as its Republican counterpart vastly outpaces its fundraising, despite a record-breaking start by embattled chair Ken Martin.
According to newly filed Federal Election Commission reports, the DNC raised $8.6 million last month, bringing its cash on hand to $15.2 million, Huffpost reported. The number is just a fraction of what the Republican National Committee (RNC) has raised — pulling in $16.2 million in June, bringing its account to a massive $80 million.
Martin, the former Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair, has raised $50 million since taking the helm earlier this year — a record for a new DNC leader. Still, concerns are growing in the shadow of the Republican's 5:1 financial advantage. The New York Times recently reported that Democratic officials have discussed the possibility of taking out a loan to cover operating costs ahead of the 2026 midterms.
If Martin is feeling the heat, he hasn't let on publicly. "The DNC is breaking grassroots fundraising records, bringing on more volunteers than ever, and raising record-setting funds to beat Republicans," he said in a statement. "Democrats are back in the ring thanks to grassroots energy across all 50 states."
But Martin's tenure has been marked by internal friction, including a high-profile clash with former Vice Chair David Hogg, a prominent progressive activist.
With 2026 midterm elections approaching, and 2028 on the horizon, the DNC has ramped up its field efforts, hosting 138 town halls in Republican-held districts and mobilizing a volunteer base of 30,000. It remains to be seen how successful the Democrats will be in mobilizing wary voters, and if it will be enough to contend with the GOP's significant financial advantage.
Originally published on Latin Times
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

White House Restricts WSJ Access To Trump Over Epstein Story
White House Restricts WSJ Access To Trump Over Epstein Story

Int'l Business Times

time4 minutes ago

  • Int'l Business Times

White House Restricts WSJ Access To Trump Over Epstein Story

The White House on Monday barred The Wall Street Journal from traveling with US President Donald Trump during his upcoming visit to Scotland, after the newspaper reported that he wrote a bawdy birthday message to his former friend, alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The move comes after Trump on Friday sued the WSJ and its media magnate owner Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion over the allegation in the article, which Trump denies. The Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case has threatened to split the Republican's far-right Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, with some of his supporters calling for a full release of the so-called "Epstein Files." The punishment of the Wall Street Journal marks at least the second time the Trump administration has moved to exclude a major news outlet from the press pool over its reporting, having barred Associated Press journalists from multiple key events since February. "As the appeals court confirmed, The Wall Street Journal or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces," said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. "Due to The Wall Street Journal's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board (Air Force One)." Trump departs this weekend for Scotland, where he owns two golf resorts and will meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice, under Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, said there was no evidence suggesting disgraced financier Epstein had kept a "client list" or was blackmailing powerful figures before his death in 2019. In its story on Thursday, the WSJ reported that Trump had written a suggestive birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, illustrated with a naked woman and alluding to a shared "secret." Epstein, a longtime friend of Trump and multiple other high-profile men, was found hanging dead in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida. The case sparked conspiracy theories, especially among Trump's far-right voters, about an alleged international cabal of wealthy pedophiles. Epstein's death -- declared a suicide -- before he could face trial supercharged that narrative. Since returning to power in January, Trump has moved to increase control over the press covering the White House. In February, the Oval Office stripped the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) of its nearly century-old authority to oversee which outlets have access to certain restricted presidential events, with Trump saying that he was now "calling the shots" on media access. In a statement, the WHCA president urged the White House to "restore" the Journal to the pool. "This attempt by the White House to punish a media outlet whose coverage it does not like is deeply troubling, and it defies the First Amendment," said WHCA President Weijia Jiang. "Government retaliation against news outlets based on the content of their reporting should concern all who value free speech and an independent media."

Judge Presses Trump Admin On Harvard Funding Cuts
Judge Presses Trump Admin On Harvard Funding Cuts

Int'l Business Times

time4 minutes ago

  • Int'l Business Times

Judge Presses Trump Admin On Harvard Funding Cuts

A federal judge on Monday challenged the Trump administration's reasons for slashing billions of dollars in federal funding to Harvard University, triggering a furious response from the president. Judge Allison Burroughs pressed the administration's lawyer to explain how cutting grants to diverse research budgets would help protect students from alleged campus anti-Semitism, US media reported. Trump preemptively fired off a post on his Truth Social platform blasting Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, claiming without evidence that she had already decided against his government -- and vowing to appeal. The Ivy League institution sued in April to restore more than $2 billion in frozen funds. The administration insists its move is legally justified over Harvard's failure to protect Jewish and Israeli students, particularly amid campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The threat to Harvard's funding stream forced it to implement a hiring freeze while pausing ambitious research programs, particularly in the public health and medical spheres, that experts warned risked American lives. Harvard has argued that the administration is pursuing "unconstitutional retaliation" against it and several other universities targeted by Trump early in his second term. Both sides have sought a summary judgment to avoid trial, but it was unclear if Burroughs would grant one either way. The judge pressed the lone lawyer representing Trump's administration to explain how cutting funding to Harvard's broad spectrum of research related to combatting anti-Semitism, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported from court. "The Harvard case was just tried in Massachusetts before an Obama appointed Judge. She is a TOTAL DISASTER, which I say even before hearing her Ruling," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Harvard has $52 Billion Dollars sitting in the Bank, and yet they are anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America," he claimed, pointing to the university's world-leading endowment. Both Harvard and the American Association of University Professors brought cases against the Trump administration's measures which were combined and heard Monday. Trump has sought to have the case heard in the Court of Federal Claims instead of in the federal court in Boston, just miles away from the heart of the university's Cambridge campus. "This case involves the Government's efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard," Harvard said in its initial filing. The Ivy League institution has been at the forefront of Trump's campaign against top universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and "viewpoint diversity." Trump and his allies claim that Harvard and other prestigious universities are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism, particularly surrounding protests against Israel's war in Gaza. The government has also targeted Harvard's ability to host international students, an important source of income who accounted for 27 percent of total enrollment in the 2024-2025 academic year. A proclamation issued in June declared that the entrance of international students to begin a course at Harvard would be "suspended and limited" for six months and that existing overseas enrollees could have their visas terminated. The move has been halted by a judge. The US government earlier this month subpoenaed Harvard University for records linked to students allegedly involved in a wave of pro-Palestinian student protests that the Trump administration labeled anti-Semitic. Washington has also told a university accrediting body that Harvard's certification should be revoked after it allegedly failed to protect Jewish students in violation of federal civil rights law. Share of foreign students in US universities AFP

How Trump Turned His Truth Social App Into A Megaphone
How Trump Turned His Truth Social App Into A Megaphone

Int'l Business Times

time6 hours ago

  • Int'l Business Times

How Trump Turned His Truth Social App Into A Megaphone

Donald Trump has turned his obscure Truth Social platform into a megaphone in his second presidential term -- constantly posting everything from major policy announcements to personal threats and unashamed self-promotion. To mark his first six months back in power, Trump unloaded around 40 posts Sunday on the app he owns and can use unfettered by moderators, censors or fact-checkers. The deluge was characteristic of the way he has transformed Truth Social, despite being a minnow in the social media world, into the White House's primary means of communication. AFP analyzed over 2,800 Truth Social posts by @realDonaldTrump from his inauguration on January 20, 2025 up to July 20 to get a better idea of how the Republican communicates. Sidelining the White House press office, the president speaks straight to his hardcore base, posting an average of 16 messages a day, many in all-caps rants peppered with exclamation marks and the odd expletive. Although Truth Social is tiny compared to X, Trump can post to 10.5 million followers knowing that he is being followed by the media and political establishment, with much of what he says quickly being reposted to rival platforms. Trump repays the favor, helping to create a right-wing media ecosystem that invariably circles back to him. Since January 20, he has shared Fox News articles 101 times, and the New York Post and Breitbart News 51 times each. "The minute he puts something on Truth Social, others pick it up and echo it," said Darren Linvill, a social media and disinformation specialist at Clemson University in South Carolina. In his first term, Trump relied in a similar way on what was then known as Twitter -- renamed X on being purchased by Elon Musk. But after Trump's attempt to overthrow his loss in the 2020 election, he was banned by Twitter and Facebook and briefly persona non grata in Washington. Although once more present on the bigger alternatives, Trump continues to prefer Truth Social. The posts vary wildly in content, all part of Trump's brand of mixing politics with entertainment. And the style deliberately mimics Trump's verbal ticks -- the bombast, salesmanship and exaggeration. "Vladimir, STOP," he posted on April 24, after Russia launched an especially heavy bombing of Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not stop, but Trump's two-word plea earned heavy media coverage. Half of his posts used at least one exclamation point and 155 were written in all-caps. One post on March 23, promoting his cryptocurrency $Trump, read: "I LOVE $TRUMP -- SO COOL!!! The Greatest of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Trump's posts are a way for him to keep the public on its toes and to change the narrative by giving journalists a new "rabbit hole" to follow when needed, said presidential historian Alvin Felzenberg. The leader of the world's biggest economy knows investors are paying equally close attention. As markets plunged following Trump's tariffs announcements, he used Truth Social on March 10 to pump out articles predicting optimistic economic outcomes. On April 9, just as stock prices were tanking, he posted: "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!" And hours later, he announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs against dozens of countries, triggering the best day for the S&P 500 index since the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. The timing led to accusations from Democrats of an insider trader scheme. "Truth Social doesn't quite have the firepower that I think Twitter had..., but it's still impactful enough that it can at times move the market," says Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store