Fredreka Schouten

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s historic bid for the presidency is driving women to historic levels of political giving, as they race to support the nation’s first female major-party nominee.

Women account for a little more than 60% of the identifiable contributions to Clinton’s campaign and outside groups supporting her through the end of June, according to Federal Election Commission data analyzed by Crowdpac, a political crowdfunding website. By contrast, nearly 31% of the donations to help Republican Donald Trump came from female donors.

The gap is the largest in the recent history of presidential fundraising and an indication that support for Clinton among women could set records this fall if voting patterns follow political giving.

Gender already has factored heavily into the campaign. A slew of recent polls point to female voters overwhelmingly backing Clinton over Trump, a threat to his White House ambitions. Nearly 10 million more women than men cast ballots in 2012.

“Once somebody makes a financial investment in a candidate, you certainly are looking at a person who has a much higher potential for actually going out and voting for that candidate,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “You have a stake in their campaign.”

For Clinton, sisterhood is powerful — and Trump helps

Crowdpac’s analysis examined individual contributions reported to the Federal Election Commission. Candidates do not have disclose details about donors who contribute $200 or less.

Clinton campaign aides say their internal figures, which include small donations not reported to the Federal Election Commission, show an even larger proportion of support coming from women to her campaign through the end of June, about 65%. In addition, women accounted for 70% of the donors who contribute multiple times.

Officials in the Trump campaign did not respond to interview requests.

Clinton collected nearly $90 million last month for herself and Democratic Party committees as she formally accepted the party’s nomination. Trump’s camp said Wednesday that he and the Republican Party raised $80 million in July.

Hillary Clinton and Democratic Party raise nearly $90 million

Donald Trump boasts of $80 million fundraising haul

Just last week, Clinton’s campaign posted its best online fundraising day, pulling in $8.7 million in a 24-hour period, tied to her rousing speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Regina Montoya, a Texas lawyer raising money for Clinton’s campaign, wasn’t surprised.

On Friday, Montoya was traveling back to Dallas from the convention when a female friend she had courted as a potential donor “emailed me and said, ‘I’m all in.' "

Montoya serves as one of Clinton’s “Hillblazers,” the campaign’s designation for the nearly 500 individuals and couples who already have collected at least $100,000. More than half are women.

Montoya won’t say exactly how much she’s raised but said she has brought in “substantially more” than $100,000 so far. Women make up about 60% of the contributors she’s drawn into the Clinton camp, she added.

“It’s almost a badge of honor for them” to donate, said Montoya, a Wellesley College and Harvard Law graduate whose paternal grandfather began working in New Mexico's coal mines at 13. “My friends have worked hard, have gotten great educations, but nothing has come easily to them. The fact that they have the ability to make that contribution, even if it’s a stretch contribution, makes them feel so good.”

How it felt when America got a first woman presidential nominee

Clinton allies also say one of their best fundraising tools among women is Trump himself.

Earlier this year when Trump declared that Clinton was “playing the woman’s card” in the election, her campaign quickly began selling hot pink “women’s cards,” “Deal Me In” T-shirts and other merchandise pegged to Trump’s remarks. It paid off: The campaign collected $2.4 million in 48 hours.

The campaign’s most successful fundraising pitches allow supporters to show “that you are on her side, that you have her back,” said Amanda Litman, the campaign’s email director. “They feel very protective of her.”

Caren Turner, a political and government-affairs strategist in New Jersey, raised money for Clinton’s first presidential bid in 2008 but was reluctant to do so again in this election because she worried that her fundraising couldn't match the millions in unlimited contributions flowing into super PACs.

Trump’s increasingly harsh rhetoric in recent weeks has helped changed her mind, she said.

“It may have been this idiot asking Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails,” Turner said of the Trump statement that spurred her to act. “Treason! I’m putting my boxing gloves back on.”

Trump says he hopes Russia can find 'missing' Clinton emails

Although Trump’s support among women donors lags far behind Clinton’s, he’s roughly on par with the level of support Republican nominee Mitt Romney received from female givers at this point in the 2012 presidential campaign, according to data compiled by Crowdpac.

“Trump’s take from women is in line with what we have seen” in past elections, said Shelia Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political money. “Clinton and her ability to attract female donors are what’s distinct about this cycle.”

Trump largely self-financed his primary campaign and only recently began to seek money from other donors. His recent contributors included Patricia Fischer, who retired two years ago as the CEO of a small education firm in Michigan. She made three donations to Trump in May and June, totaling $450, federal records show.

In an interview, she cited Trump's record in real estate and Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of State as helping her decide to back the Republican nominee over the first woman to capture a major party's nomination for the White House.

"America is the biggest business in the world, and we need someone there who has business experience," Fischer said. "Sex should have absolutely nothing to do with choosing the president of the United States."