Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden outpaced President Donald Trump’s campaign fundraising juggernaut in June and in the second quarter of this election year, continuing a stunning reversal of fortune from his threadbare primary campaign.

The joint GOP effort still has considerably more cash left to spend ahead of the Nov. 3 election, but Biden’s newfound fundraising muscle suggests Democrats will have the resources to finance a strong operation across a wide footprint of battleground states. The former vice president’s spokesman said Tuesday night that Biden and the Democratic National Committee raised $141 million in June, bringing their second-quarter total to more than $282 million. Republicans announced earlier Tuesday that Trump and the national GOP had raised $131 million in June and $266 million for the quarter. The president’s reelection effort still had nearly $300 million cash on hand at the end of June, the campaign said. Biden’s campaign has not yet disclosed its cash-on-hand figure, though it will be well behind Trump’s figure.

At the end of May, Democrats had about $122 million. Top Biden aides and allies have downplayed that gap in recent weeks, noting that Trump already has spent lavishly on advertising and voter outreach, yet still finds himself trailing Biden in national and many battleground state polls. Still, the Trump campaign’s deep pockets have allowed the president a head start on everything from reserving television advertising months from now to building a sophisticated data operation to target his supporters online.

(AP)