democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton entered the final three weeks of the election with four times as much cash in the bank as republican donald trump, an unprecedented financial advantage that will make it virtually impossible for him to catch up to her in television advertising and ground game. mrs. clinton had more than $62 million in the bank as of oct. 19, to mr. trump<u+2019>s $16 million, according to federal election commission disclosures filed late thursday. from oct. 1-19, mrs. clinton raised $52 million for her campaign and $49 million more for two joint accounts with the democratic party. mr. trump in that period raised $30.5 million for his campaign and an additional $32 million for his joint funds with the republican party. across all accounts, mrs. clinton had $153 million in the bank as of oct. 19, to mr. trump<u+2019>s $67 million. mr. trump has repeatedly said he planned to give $100 million to his campaign by election day, a pledge he reiterated as recently as wednesday. yet his filing thursday showed he gave just $30,000 to his campaign in october, far less than the $2 million he gave in september. his contributions to his campaign currently total $56 million, meaning he needs to give $44 million in the next 11 days to live up to his pledge. mr. trump had also emailed supporters in recent weeks with pledges to match their donations. in one such email, from oct. 1, he pledged to <u+201c>triple match<u+201d> donations above $75, writing, <u+201c>because this is so important, i am going to extend our triple-match opportunity for the next 24 hours.<u+201d> the size of his donation in october suggests he didn<u+2019>t follow through. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s coffers mean that if she so chooses, she could spend an average of $7.6 million per day between oct. 20 and election day. mr. trump could spend an average of $3.3 million per day. over the course of the election through oct. 19, mrs. clinton raised $513 million for her campaign. mr. trump has raised half that<u+2014>$254 million, about one-fifth of which came from the candidate<u+2019>s own donations. mr. trump didn<u+2019>t begin raising money in earnest until may. candidates and their allied super pacs were required to report their fundraising to the fec by midnight on thursday, in the final disclosure before election day. both candidates spent about $50 million each in the first three weeks of october, according to their filings. in all of september, mrs. clinton spent $82 million, while mr. trump spent $70 million. for the final two weeks of the campaign, mrs. clinton has about $48 million of tv advertising booked, to mr. trump<u+2019>s $36 million. such a large financial imbalance is rare in modern presidential politics. at this stage in 2012, president barack obama had $93 million in his campaign bank account, to gop nominee mitt romney <u+2019>s $52 million. mr. romney<u+2019>s super pac, however, outpaced mr. obama<u+2019>s, with $24 million in the bank at this point, compared with the democratic group<u+2019>s $10 million. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s super pac has also trounced the set of pro-trump groups in fundraising. priorities usa action raised $18 million in the first three weeks of october and had $15.2 million in the bank as of oct. 19. three of the four pro-trump groups that had filed with the fec collectively raised $2.2 million in october and had $3 million in the bank. two of the pro-trump super pacs saw their fundraising virtually halt in october. make america number one, a group that earlier this year won million-dollar donations from hedge-fund executive robert mercer and millionaire cherna moskowitz, raised just $25 in the first three weeks of the month. a second group, which raised $18 million in the third quarter of 2016, raised just $214,000 this month. great america pac, a third pro-trump super pac, raised $2 million in the first three weeks, and a spokesman said it had raised $3.5 million since then. top donations to the pro-clinton super pac this month included $1.5 million from marilyn simons, president of the simons foundation and wife of billionaire hedge-fund founder james simons, who has donated an additional $8.5 million to the super pac. dustin moskovitz, the co-founder of facebook, donated $2.5 million. mr. trump also found himself $2 million in debt to four vendors as of oct. 19, having not previously owed any debts. mrs. clinton had $110,000 in debt. write to rebecca ballhaus at rebecca.ballhaus@wsj.com
hillary clinton pulls in $101 million in first three weeks of october  - wsj
rebecca ballhaus