After the first debate with Trump, Democratic presidential candidate He Jinli’s daily fundraising amount surged to a new high. He Jinli’s campaign team announced on Thursday (September 12) the fundraising results, raising $47 million within 24 hours after the debate, with nearly 600,000 donations, mostly from grassroots supporters.
Despite the strong fundraising performance after the debate, surpassing previous fundraising records, He Jinli’s team urged voters not to prematurely consider her as having decisively won after the first debate, as there is still a long way to go until the November election, with the Trump camp continuing to raise funds through political action committees (PACs) and external groups.
He Jinli’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said, “We not only have to fight against Trump and his campaign team, but also compete with a whole army allied with the ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) super PACs and external groups.”
An official from the campaign stated that within the first hour of the debate, 71% of grassroots supporters making donations were women.
According to Nielsen statistics, the TV debate attracted 67.1 million viewers.
Some media opinions suggest that He Jinli had the upper hand in the September 10 debate, believing that her success in enraging Trump during the debate, causing him to deviate from the discussion topics, was an advantage for her.
According to a flash poll by CNN, 63% of respondents believed that her performance exceeded Trump’s, while another 37% thought Trump won.
After the debate, Trump stated on Fox News’ morning talk show that it was his “best debate performance ever” and he believed he won by a large margin. He pointed out, “They (the moderators) kept picking on my flaws, but didn’t correct He Jinli’s mistakes,” and criticized the debate host network ABC as the most dishonest news organization.
On Thursday, Trump posted on the social platform Truth Social, stating that he refused to hold another debate with He Jinli. He wrote, “There will be no third debate!”
In response, He Jinli promptly replied, “I believe we owe the voters another debate.”