Clinton Keeps Cash Lead As Trump Gives $10 Million More
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald Trump's campaign said Friday the billionaire businessman is plunging an additional $10 million of his personal fortune into his presidential bid, after new federal filings that show Hillary Clinton with an $85 million cash advantage in the final stretch.
Clinton's campaign, meanwhile, announced plans to hold a rally in Arizona next Wednesday, a traditionally red state put in play by Trump's deep unpopularity among minority voters, Mormons and business leaders.
The latest fundraising records, up to date as of Wednesday, show Trump had given only about $33,000 this month — far less than the $2 million he typically gives and still $44 million short of the $100 million he's repeatedly promised to contribute over the course of the campaign.
"He will continue to make investments into his campaign including in these last 11 days," Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News. "He has said publicly many times he is in for $100 million and he is happy to invest in his campaign."
Clinton's campaign and joint accounts with Democrats had $153 million in the bank as of last week. That's more than double the $68 million the Republican's campaign and partnership committees had on hand.
Clinton's continued fundraising edge in the latest filings, which cover the first 19 days of the month, helps ensure the Democratic nominee can maintain her sprawling political operation in the frantic final days of the race. She maintains a staff of more than 800 — several times as large as Trump's — and has spent more on advertising than the Republican has in every week of the race.
"We are being incredibly efficient with the dollars we have. We're doing things smarter," said Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie in a conference call with reporters.
He added, "I obviously want to see more on the air and with our communications, digitally and on television. That's where we're focusing on our final push."
Running mate Mike Pence said Friday it's up to Trump to decide if he wants to increase his personal giving.
"He'll make that decision, but I'll tell you what, the strength of this campaign is not dollars and cents, it's really the American people," Pence said on ABC's "Good Morning America." ''I really think it's the message. I think it's the agenda."
The Indiana governor made the rounds on the morning shows Friday after his plane slid off the runway during a rainstorm at New York's LaGuardia Airport late Thursday, tearing up concrete before coming to rest on a patch of grass. No one was injured and Pence planned to campaign in Pennsylvania and North Carolina on Friday.
Trump is holding events in New Hampshire, Iowa and Maine, one of two states that split their electoral voters by congressional district. Facing an increasingly narrow path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, his campaign is shooting for one of the traditionally Democratic state's four electoral votes in the more rural, conservative 2nd District.
Clinton, meanwhile, sees expanded opportunities. Her campaign has begun focusing on helping Democrats win control of the Senate, expand their margin in the House and lay the groundwork for future victories in demographically-shifting states like Arizona.
In Arizona, Democrats are targeting both Sen. John McCain's seat and state legislative chambers. Trump's been hurt by his unpopularity among minority voters and Mormons, who make up a sizeable population in the state.
She plans to campaign in Iowa on Friday, where new polling shows her in a dead heat with Trump, erasing a lead he's maintained for much of the race. Her campaign will also get a boost from President Barack Obama, whose national approval rating recently reached a new high. He'll be holding an evening rally in Orlando, a key battleground area of the crucial swing state of Florida.
White House officials say Obama will be traveling to boost Clinton nearly every day until Election Day, Nov. 8.
Her campaign also released a new ad featuring the president saying that a vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote to uphold his legacy. Obama says in the ad that "all the progress we've made these last eight years is on the ballot."
The president's appearance comes a day after Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama held a joint campaign rally in North Carolina.
At the raucous rally, Mrs. Obama passionately touted Clinton's experience and denounced Trump as too divisive and thin-skinned for the White House.
"We want someone who is a unifying force in this country, someone who sees our differences not as a threat but as a blessing," Mrs. Obama said as she addressed an enthusiastic, 11,000-person crowd in Winston-Salem, one of Clinton's biggest gatherings of her campaign.
The Obama family's public role in the campaign marks a sharp contrast from two years ago, when he was unpopular and Democrats winced when he occasionally said his policies were on the ballot in the midterms.
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