Early donations allow campaigns to plan their strategy ahead, but donations closer to Election Day are also helpful, according to Stephen Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington. “There are a lot of campaigns that are very well funded this cycle; there has been a lot of money put into these campaigns from both parties, typically when you compare to four years ago,” he said. “Probably, campaigns may have spent more money than they had raised already, hoping that they would get last minute donations.”
