Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has outpaced former Republican president Donald J. Trump’s fundraising in Marblehead by almost five to one, Federal Election Commission data shows.
Neighbors from Peaches Point to Jersey Street, Legg’s Hill Road to the Old & Historic District, the Neck to the Goldthwait Beach neighborhood and all the streets on the Salem side of Marblehead have filled the campaign coffers of both candidates with at least $284,910 this election cycle as they both race to the November finish line. Donors include hundreds of retirees and self-employed professionals as well as workers at local businesses like Kelly’s Roast Beef, giant global conglomerates like the Coca Cola Company, public schools, banks, colleges, real estate firms and government agencies, according to a review of public records at the Federal Election Commission.
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Harris has netted at least $236,000 since Jan. 1, 2023, compared to Trump’s $48,910, the data shows. At least 166 of the 937 Harris contributions were made to the Biden Victory Fund before President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection in July. The funds in Biden’s campaign war chest were transferred to Harris when she became the presidential nominee, and Marblehead donations began accelerating to her campaign and committees and PACS raising funds on her behalf, the records show.
Trump’s fundraising in Marblehead has to date resulted in 612 individual contributions since Jan. 1, 2023. The overwhelming majority of Trump donors are retirees, but also analysts, business owners, interior designers and stay-at-home mothers, according to the data.
Over 400 of the Harris donors from Marblehead listed “not employed” as their occupation, while others include teachers, cooks, psychologists, pilots, doctors, waitstaff and many others. One supporter gave his occupation as “badass” when contributing $250 on July 21 of this year, the same day Biden officially withdrew from the race.
The current fundraising is far less than what Marblehead residents gave to Trump and President Joe Biden in 2020 in a similar two-year period preceding that presidential election. Biden raised $657,850 and Trump just over $115,000 for that race.
And in 2016, when Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he raised $37,465 as compared to Clinton’s $248,469 from Marblehead residents before he secured the White House that November, the records show.
It is not just Trump and Harris who have benefitted from Marbleheaders’ largesse this election cycle. Donors from the 01945 zip code have poured more than $1.3 million to all federal candidates, PACS and committees since Jan. 1, 2023. Residents supported a wide swath of political efforts with donations, among others, to the Democratic and Republican parties, congressional campaigns for candidates in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Wyoming, Louisiana, California and Arizona and the failed presidential bid by Republican Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina.
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Boston University Journalism Program. Randazzo is a B.U. senior majoring in journalism. Mulvihill is a veteran journalist and associate professor of computational journalism at B.U.
