President Donald Trump revealed that his 2020 election warchest is already at $35.4 million, having raised over $100 million in the past year, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

NBC News reported that more than 50% of Trump’s various campaign committees “came from individual supporters, who are giving in amounts of $200 or less. These supporters also are turning up at Trump-headlined rallies, where their information is being pulled into the Republican National Committee’s expanding voter database.”

Trump is apparently taking a page out of the grassroots approach utilized by Barack Obama, gathering support at the retail voter level at rallies and speeches. NBC says the GOP is “connecting with 1 million voters per day and forging an army of volunteers”. As polling in numerous battleground states continues to shift in the GOP’s favor since the Kavanaugh hearings, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the confirmation gambit failed for Democrats.

The small donation sizes are not only indicative of the individual voter’s interest in Trump’s re-election campaign, but the volume of donations is an advantage for the GOP in general.

OpenSecrets.org points out that, “Raising huge sums of money not only gives your campaign resources but is crucial to gaining recognition as a viable candidate by the main parties. The Intercept provides an example in which it says, “In an investigation of how the Democratic Party selects candidates to support for Congress, if the candidates’ contacts aren’t good for at least $250,000, or in some cases much more, they fail the test, and party support goes elsewhere.”

What is unusual is the extent of fundraising Trump’s campaign has already accomplished. The Chicago Tribune reports that Barack Obama had not even begun to raise funds in earnest at the comparable point in his re-election plans, and had only $2.3 million of cash on hand at the same point in time.

The Tribune quoted GOP strategist, an employee of Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign, who said, “If the Trump campaign and RNC keep doing what they’re doing, they’re going to amass a huge fundraising and grassroots network. By the time the conventions come around, they’re going to be rolling down the campaign trail with a well-oiled, fully-weaponized battle station” – an apparent reference to The Death Star.

On the other side of the aisle, Democratic strategist Paul Begala said,”It is really impressive, the money and the operation that the Trump folks are putting together. [Democrats] had better get about the business of re-arming for the next battle.”

Indeed, the Democratic National Committee is in big trouble financially. Their latest filing shows $7.98 million of cash on hand, but almost $7 million of it is owed back in the form of loans.

The GOP is also much better organized than it has been in the past, with the Tribune reporting that the RNC enjoys a 28-state army with 540 staff members, and trained 22,000 activists. This is almost five times what the RNC had in 2016, and recruitment centers around Trump’s rallies and speeches.

The RNC is getting better at targeting individuals for recruitment, using data programs to highlight individuals when they show interest in Trump or the GOP, whether it be via an online petition or a donation.

The Democrats face another challenge: it is difficult to fundraise when there is no clear candidate. The party may sour on Senator Elizabeth Warren following Monday’s DNA debacle. That leaves Sen. Cory Booker and former vice president Joe Biden as the most obvious candidates. Yet until a clear front-runner emerges, fundraising may be forestalled.