Harris-Trump showdown: GOP president promises ‘we absolutely have the resources’ to win in November

Former President Trump’s 2024 campaign and the Republican National Committee are facing a fundraising shortfall to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

But RNC Chairman Michael Whatley says the Trump campaign and the GOP national committee “absolutely have the resources” to win in November.

Harris’ campaign, which touts a “historic 24-hour haul,” showcased its fundraising prowess this week in the immediate aftermath of the vice president’s first and potentially only debate with Trump.

The money raised by Harris’ campaign is the latest sign of the vice president’s fundraising surge in the nearly two months since she replaced President Biden as the head of the national Democratic ticket for 2024.

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The post-debate fundraising announcement comes a week after the Harris campaign announced it raised $361 million in August, nearly triple the $130 million raised by the Trump campaign.

Asked about fundraising, Whatley said in an interview with Fox News Digital Tuesday during the presidential debate in Philadelphia that “Democrats have a ton of money. Democrats always have a ton of money.”

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But he stressed that “we absolutely have the resources to get our message out to every voter we talk to and we are confident that we will be able to run this campaign and win on November 5th.”

Ryan Williams, a longtime Republican strategist and communicator, noted that in the 2016 presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton “outperformed Donald Trump by a wide margin and it made no difference. He was able to essentially commandeer the free media and get his message out without having to spend a lot of money on TV advertising.”

“People have an opinion about Donald Trump. You can spend tens of millions of dollars on negative ads against him, but the cake is already baked in terms of his public perception,” added Williams, a veteran of several Republican presidential campaigns. “Harris is less known and less defined. I think the Trump campaign will have the resources to define her.”

Harris’ campaign emphasizes that it is investing much of its fundraising efforts in outreach and voter mobilization efforts, noting that it is “using its resources to reach the voters who will decide the election.”

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The massive field operation, initially built when Biden was the nominee, according to the campaign, includes more than 312 offices and more than 2,000 staffers in key battlegrounds coordinated between the presidential campaign, the DNC and state Democratic parties.

In a Harris-led campaign, compared to Trump and the RNC, Democrats have a considerable home-field advantage. But Trump is relying on a handful of outside groups aligned to help him carry out the mobilization efforts traditionally undertaken by a presidential campaign.

Whatley disputed the idea that Democrats were benefiting from a more effective election campaign.

“No, they don’t have a stronger ground strategy. I feel very, very comfortable with the ground strategy that we’re putting in place with Trump Force 47,” the RNC chairman told Fox News Digital.

Williams stressed that “the game on the ground will be crucial given the narrow margins in key battleground states and could swing the election.”

“In this race, where every decisive election seems to come down to a point, strategy on the ground can make the difference. It takes resources and organization to execute an effective strategy on the ground, identify the voters who are likely to be convinced and turn them out,” he added. “Democrats will have a formidable operation, and in many states they will try to pick up votes early.”

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