(CNN) — The Democratic National Committee continues to be outraised by their Republican counterparts, a problem that could be magnified as the 2020 campaign against President Donald Trump looms.
The Democratic committee raised $7.9 million in May between their primary account and the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
That haul is slightly over half the $14.6 million that the Republican National Committee raised in May, according to FEC reports.
The divide between the party committees is more obvious when you look at the amount of money each committee has in the bank. The Democrats, between their primary account and the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, have just over $9 million in the bank with just under $6 million in debt.
But the Republican National Committee ended the May reporting period with $37 million in the bank.
Democratic operatives and DNC Chair Tom Perez himself have argued that outraising the Republican committee is not the goal for the DNC going into 2020 and that money did not hold Democrats back in 2018, where the party was outraised by the Republicans but still notched big wins in the House and in gubernatorial races.
A DNC spokesman also noted on Friday that the committee raised $4.5 million in May of 2015, the same month ahead of the 2016 election.
The 2016 election, however, was a disaster for the DNC and even Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ 2016 nominee, excoriated the committee after she lost to Trump, claiming she inherited “nothing” from the committee.
“I inherited nothing from the Democratic Party,” Clinton said after the election. “I mean, it was bankrupt. It was on the verge of insolvency. Its data was mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong. I had to inject money into it.”
Clinton went on to say that the RNC’s data operation was “tried and true” with an “effective foundation.”
The Democratic National Committee, hoping to boost its fundraising numbers, made a change to their national finance chairman. Henry Muñoz, after six years in the job, stepped down in May, and Chris Korge, a top fundraiser for Clinton’s 2016 campaign and a Florida lawyer, took the job.
