President Joe Biden’s reelection operation — his campaign, the Democratic National Committee and a joint fundraising effort that includes state parties across the country — raised more than $72 million in his first quarter since announcing he’d seek a second term, his campaign manager said in a new video posted to Twitter.
Julie Chavez Rodriguez says in the video that the Biden political operation received 670,000 contributions from more than 394,000 individual donors, boasting a significant a significant cash advantage over Biden’s potential GOP rivals as the campaign begins. She did not say what percentage of the money came from small donors, only sharing that 97% of the donations were less than $200, with an average “grassroots” donation of $39.
The campaign did not say how much of the money flowed into Biden’s campaign committee itself — the most important fundraising figure, and one that will be closely scrutinized by allies and rivals in both parties as a measure of his strength and readiness for the 2024 campaign, at a time when his political standing is in perilous position for an incumbent. Biden’s campaign must file a report with the Federal Election Commission detailing its second-quarter fundraising by the end of Saturday.
Biden had historically struggled to raise money for his past campaigns, but he ultimately set a new record in 2020, becoming the first candidate for any federal office to raise $1 billion from donors as he rallied Democrats against then-President Donald Trump.
Four years ago, Biden raised more than $22 million in his first fundraising quarter for his campaign, including $8.3 million from small donors. At the time, individual donation limits were lower than they are now, and Biden was campaigning against nearly two dozen other Democrats for the party’s nomination.
His first report in the 2024 cycle easily surpassed that — and the overall total raised by his political operation stretched further still, thanks in part to one of the trappings of incumbency: a fundraising arrangement with the DNC and the local party operations of all 50 states and the District of Columbia that allows individuals to contribute as much as $929,600 apiece to the so-called Biden Victory Fund.
That’s a big part of how the combined Biden political operation has racked up $77 million in the bank across its many entities — though again, it’s unclear how much of that money is stashed in the campaign versus other Democratic Party vehicles.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign had a similar arrangement with 38 state parties, while Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012 had one with 22 states, according to Biden’s campaign.
Biden’s haul does appear lower than two recent incumbent presidents at the same period of their reelection campaigns. Trump, the Republican National Committee and Trump’s joint fundraising committees raised a combined $108 million in the second fundraising quarter of 2019. And Obama, the DNC and Obama’s joint fundraising committee raised a combined $89 million at this point in 2011.
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Biden’s decision after his 2020 victory to largely fold his political operation into the DNC for future elections was in contrast with Obama, whose team stood up a political organization known as Organizing for America after his 2008 victory. Biden advisers have argued the tight coordination between the president and the national party committee helped position Democrats for success in the 2022 midterm elections. Now, they say, the staffing there gives his still-skeletal operation a running start for 2024.
Obama raised about $46 million into his campaign in the same fundraising period of the 2012 election cycle. But the Biden-era Democratic National Committee has been better funded and more central to his reelection campaign’s early planning.
Just a handful of Biden campaign staff are on the campaign payroll so far, and they have largely been working out of the DNC’s Washington offices since he announced his candidacy on April 25. The campaign expects to open its own headquarters in Wilmington, Del., in August, as it also continues to evaluate what functions can continue to be served by DNC staff versus others that require onboarding new personnel.
Biden’s team had carefully managed expectations ahead of filing its first fundraising report. Jeffrey Katzenberg, a longtime major Democratic donor now serving as a campaign co-chairman, told NBC in May that major fundraising was not a priority in the early phase of the campaign, even as he predicted that the president would “have all, if not more than, the resources that he needs to run a competitive campaign.”
One of the first events Biden held after his announcement was a gathering of top Democratic donors in Washington — though one without a price for admission. The president has since held a dozen fundraisers, including five in the final four days of the fundraising quarter.
Vice President Kamala Harris has also been active on the fundraising circuit, including one she attended Thursday in New York.
