WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris has raised $540million in little more than a month since she began her race for United States president, with a surge of donations during the Democratic National Convention last week, her campaign said.

A memo released by Harris’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said the $540m raised included $82m that came in during convention week and was a sign of Democratic enthusiasm for her candidacy. “Just before Vice President Harris’ acceptance speech Thursday night, we officially crossed the $500 million mark,” O’Malley Dillon wrote in a memo released by the campaign on Sunday. “Immediately after her speech, we saw our best fundraising hour since launch day.”

“This is the most ever for any presidential campaign in this time span,” she added.

O’Malley Dillon said that nearly a third of contributions during convention week came from first-time contributors. About one-fifth of those first-time contributors were young voters and two-thirds were women, groups the campaign sees as critical constituencies that Harris needs to turn out to win in November. The Harris campaign says it has also seen a surge in volunteer support for the vice president. During convention week, supporters signed up for nearly 200,000 volunteer shifts to help the campaign.

Harris became candidate for president on July 21 when President Joe Biden stepped aside under pressure from fellow Democrats concerned about his age after he stumbled during a June 27 debate against Republican rival Donald Trump. The Harris candidacy has generated momentum that has put Trump on the defensive and left him struggling to maintain media attention.

Trump has also proven a formidable fundraiser, but at the moment appears to be outpaced by Harris’s month-old campaign. Trump’s campaign and its related affiliates announced earlier this month that they had raised $138.7million in July – less than what Harris took in during her White House bid’s opening week. Trump’s campaign reported $327million in cash on hand at the start of August.

Harris and her vice presidential running mate, Tim Walz, take their campaign for the White House on a bus tour through Georgia this week, looking to build support in a state looming large in the November 5 election. (Al Jazeera) …[+]