Do I have to come right flat out and tell you everything?

One reason the situation looked so dire for the presidential prospects of Democrats six weeks ago is that Biden was badly trailing swing state Dem Senate candidates despite the fact that Democrats had to that point a near-monopoly on paid advertising in those states. Between America’s plutocrats becoming ever more comfortable with MAGA and lagging Democratic fundraising, it was the path to coming from behind was going to be very difficult.

This, at least, is no longer an issue:

The Democratic National Convention wasn’t just four days of good vibes: It was also the cause of a major fundraising and volunteer boom for the Harris-Walz ticket.

The campaign has now raised $540 million since launching one month ago, which Harris-Walz Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon called “a record for any campaign in history” in a Sunday morning memo announcing the figure. Part of that is due to a convention-week bump: The campaign had its best fundraising hour ever just after Vice President Harris’s speech, according to the memo; another campaign spokesperson said a total of $82 million was raised during convention week. Those totals reflect funds raised by Harris for President, the Democratic National Committee, and joint fundraising committees, the campaign said.

A third of the week’s donations were from first-time contributors, almost a fifth of whom were young voters and two-thirds of whom were women, the campaign said. Volunteers are also fired up, as O’Malley Dillon reported supporters had signed up for nearly 200,000 shifts since Monday.

The massive fundraising haul is nothing new for Harris’s campaign: As my colleague Russ Choma previously reported, the campaign raised $81 million in its first 24 hours, which they said was the largest such take in history. And as I reported last month, it raised $200 million in Harris’s first week campaigning, two-thirds of which was said to have come from first-time donors.

As nobody who lived through 2016 needs reminding, a fundraising advantage guarantees shit — but it’s certainly better than the alternative. It’s particularly important given that 1)every state matters when Trump is not going to accept defeat should it happen, and 2)the map is in a little flux — it’s not completely inconceivable that Harris could win North Carolina and lose Pennsylvania. The broader the field she can compete on the better.