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President Donald Trump is raising big money in Colorado, far outpacing Democrat Joe Biden

The divided Democratic presidential primary split major donors and left former Vice President Joe Biden to play catchup in Colorado

Sandra Fish / Colorado Sun
President Donald Trump greets the crowd as he enters the arena for a campaign rally at the World Arena in Colorado Springs Thursday, February 20, 2020.
Mark Reis / Special to Colorado Sun

President Donald Trump is collecting the bulk of campaign donations from Colorado, but former Vice President Joe Biden began to close the gap after emerging as the presumptive Democratic nominee. 

Colorado residents have donated nearly $5.6 million to Trump, compared with $3.2 million to Biden, according to a Colorado Sun analysis of Federal Election Commission data through the end of June.

Headed into the national party conventions, Trump also holds the lead when it comes to raising money through related fundraising committees for the Republican Party from Colorado donors. Biden couldn’t do the same for Democrats until he’d essentially clinched the nomination. The bulk of these donations go to the political parties and not the candidates, so they are not included in the campaign totals.



Trump’s fundraising edge in Colorado is a reversal from four years ago, when Democrat Hillary Clinton outpaced Trump’s mostly self-funded campaign in the state. He raised less than $500,000 from Colorado donors in 2016 compared to the $4.4 million Clinton raised, the Sun analysis found.

In 2020, the largest donors to Trump, the Republican National Committee and state GOP groups through joint fundraising committees include Otterbox CEO Curtis Richardson of Fort Collins, who gave $500,000, and MDC Holdings Chairman Larry Mizel and his wife, Carol, who gave a combined $100,000, according to campaign finance records. Mizel served as Trump’s finance chairman in Colorado for the 2016 campaign, but it’s not clear who is leading those efforts this cycle.



On the Democratic side, Fort Collins philanthropist Pat Stryker donated $400,000 to Biden Victory in late June, while former Quark CEO Farhad Ebrahimi gave $357,800. Quark co-founder Tim Gill and Denver philanthropist Merle Chambers each gave $355,000 to Biden,  the Democratic National Committee and state parties that belong to the committee.

Despite Trump’s fundraising edge, Biden holds a double-digit polling advantage in Colorado. Trump lost to Clinton in Colorado by 5 percentage points in 2016.

To read the rest of the Colorado Sun article, click here.


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