Trump super PAC raises $70M in May, eyes 4 key swing states

The primary super PAC supporting former President Trump said it raised nearly $70 million in May and plans to spend $100 million in paid media through Labor Day, with a particular focus on four key battleground states.

Make America Great Again Inc. CEO Taylor Budowich, in a memo to stakeholders obtained by The Hill, said the group’s massive haul adds to the nearly $300 million raised by the Trump campaign and other pro-Trump groups last month.

While the exact numbers cannot be verified until campaign finance reports are made public, the fundraising explosion comes on the heels of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money case.

“Joe Biden and the Democrats wanted a conviction, and they got it, for now,” Budowich wrote in the memo. “However, the fundamental political realities driving voter motivation remain unchanged: voters are pessimistic about America’s future, large majorities believe the country has gotten worse on a number of critical issues, and President Trump’s favorability and job approval has actually increased this year, while those same measures have gotten worse for Joe Biden.”

The memo outlines that the campaign views Pennsylvania as a potentially decisive state in November’s election, with Georgia, Arizona and Nevada as other key targets for the former president.

MAGA Inc.’s internal polling shows Trump leading President Biden in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, with the two candidates tied or narrowly separated in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to the memo.

But the group’s $100 million commitment through Labor Day reflects where it views Trump’s clearest path to victory: by winning Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The super PAC intends to “play a substantial role in Pennsylvania through November,” Budowich said, arguing winning the state’s 19 electoral votes “is the ball game.”

At the same time, the memo argues that winning Georgia’s 16 electoral votes would “present the best gateway to the White House” for Trump.

The group also intends to run “targeted and sustained campaigns” aimed at persuadable voters in Nevada and Arizona through Labor Day.

If Trump were to win each state he carried in 2020, plus Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, it would give him 271 electoral votes, enough to win the White House. Winning Arizona, Nevada and Georgia would give him 268, short of the 270 needed to win.

“We are under no illusion it will be easy, or fair—but thankfully, President Trump is well positioned to win as long as we all continue doing our part,” Budowich wrote in the memo. “We have conserved resources for this moment, and MAGA Inc. will continue to put every dollar we raise straight into ensuring President Trump wins in November.”

The Biden campaign has long maintained a healthy cash advantage over the Trump campaign, and that edge has manifested itself in the form of waves of investments in paid advertising and the opening of dozens of campaign offices in key swing states where Trump has yet to invest major resources.

But Trump allies have argued the millions of dollars in spending from the Biden campaign has been targeted at winning over portions of Biden’s base and has failed to move polls meaningfully in the president’s direction.

Trump has also received a significant boost in fundraising in recent weeks, buoyed in part by outrage over the guilty verdict on charges of falsifying business records in his New York criminal trial.

A Decision Desk HQ/The Hill average of polls shows Trump leading Biden by 3 percentage points in Arizona, 3 percentage points in Nevada, 4 percentage points in Georgia, 2 percentage points in Pennsylvania and 1 percentage point in Wisconsin. The two are separated by less than a percentage point in Michigan.