In a statement, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is presiding over her first midterm election, said that the RNC has made over 52 million voter contacts. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Elections RNC posts $56.8 million quarter as donations boom ahead of midterms

The Republican National Committee raised $56.8 million in the third quarter of the year, including $26.2 million in September—a record amount for one month in a non-presidential election year—according to new figures provided to POLITICO.

The haul brings the RNC’s total to $269.9 million so far this cycle.


The Democratic National Committee has yet to release its third quarter numbers, but has lagged behind its GOP counterpart all year. The Democratic committee raised about $116 million from the start of the year through the previous quarter, according to its last fundraising report, and had around $8 million in the bank at the end of July.

The RNC’s third quarter total is up about 35 percent from the $41.5 million the party raised in the second quarter of this year.

The strong results are welcome news for Republicans anxious that they are being swamped by Democratic money in House races nationwide as the GOP battles to save its Congressional majorities.

Last Saturday alone, the RNC made contact with “nearly 1 million voters,” according to a party official. The committee brought in an extra $12 million as a result of 175,000 new online donors it added this year. RNC staffers attributed the uptick in fundraising to the party’s field program and its network of 200,000 volunteers spanning across 28 states.

The national party’s latest tally comes as Trump boasts an unprecedented $18 million fundraising haul from July to September through his own re-elect operation and an ongoing joint effort with the national party. Federal Election Commission filings made public late Monday revealed a campaign with more than $106 million in its coffers, a modest staff, and no signs of slowing down. Compared to his predecessor, Trump has 34 times more cash on hand than President Obama had toward his re-election effort at a similar point in 2010.

The big Republican cash has yet to translate on the generic congressional ballot: Democrats enjoyed an 11-point lead over Republicans in a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday, down just three percentage points from the lead they carried in late August. Republicans need to prevent their opponents from flipping 23 seats next month to maintain their congressional majority through the second half of Trump’s first term, and not since 2002 has a president’s party made gains in the lower chamber during a midterm cycle.

In a statement, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is presiding over her first midterm election, said that the RNC has made over 52 million voter contacts. She expressed confidence that Democrats “have pushed their resistance agenda to the extreme and are now inciting the far-left mobs” before next month’s election.