How Joe Biden cut into President Trump’s campaign cash advantage

US President Donald Trump started off the year with a sizeable cash advantage over the Democratic presidential field, but six months later, it’s a different story.

Joe Biden, left, and President Donald Trump, right.

US President Trump started off the year with a sizeable cash advantage over the Democratic presidential field, while former Vice President Joe Biden was consistently outraised by his primary competitors.

Six months later, the Democratic presumptive nominee has overcome a slowdown in giving that coincided with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and raised more than Mr Trump for two straight months.

WSJ graphic: campaign cash in hand

The latest public filings from WinRed and ActBlue, the main online donation platforms for Republicans and Democrats, show how American political giving has fluctuated across an unpredictable first half of 2020.

Cumulative online fundraising in 2020

While online donations play a large role in the two presidential campaigns’ fundraising, they are only part of the story.

Mr Trump has benefited from more than three years of large donations made through his Trump Victory committee, raising more than $218 million since the beginning of 2017 for his campaign, the Republican National Committee and state parties.

WSJ graphic - total money raised

Mr Biden set up a similar fundraising structure with the DNC at the end of April, raising nearly $100 million through two committees for his campaign, the DNC and state parties.

Since then, those big checks have combined with Mr Biden’s improved online fundraising to help him narrow the cash-on-hand gap between his campaign and Mr Trump’s.