By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election team said on Friday it and his Democratic party had raised $72 million in the first quarter since the campaign launched, giving firepower to his efforts to run for a second term.
Biden, who launched his campaign on April 25, had $77 million in cash at the end of June from several affiliated fundraising entities and the Democratic Party.
Those funds allow him to run ads in politically competitive swing states and start building a campaign team ahead of what could be more than $1 billion and the most expensive race in history.
Republican frontrunner former President Donald Trump raised more than $35 million in the April-June period, a campaign official said. Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis raised $20 million during the same period, according to his campaign.
Biden has a key advantage his potential Republican opponents don’t: his party’s support and fundraising muscle. He is not expected to face a serious challenge to his party’s nomination and his allies run the operations of the Democratic National Committee. Republicans, meanwhile, are spending some of their campaign funds to fight each other.
The closely watched Biden fundraising numbers are seen as a test of enthusiasm among local and wealthy donors for Biden, 80, who doubted his age as he decided to seek another four-year term in 2024. Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.
Its numbers compare to the $105 million raised by then-President Trump and the Republican National Committee in the second quarter of 2019, as well as the $86 million raised by President Barack Obama and the DNC in 2011.
Trump launched his campaign in June of that year, but had already begun fundraising, while Obama launched his campaign on April 4. This meant Obama had more time than Biden to fundraise for the quarter, although there were lower caps on what donors were allowed to contribute under the law at the time.
The figures distributed by the campaigns do not include substantial spending by outside super political action committees (super PACs) that also support the candidates.
The Biden campaign is required to submit more detailed financial records to the Federal Election Commission by Saturday.
“As Republicans burn resources in a divisive primary focused on who can fill the most extreme MAGA positions, we significantly outperform each of them – because the strength of our team lies in our grassroots supporters,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, in a report.
Chavez Rodriguez led a lean operation, with just a handful of aides, often working remotely, without cutting the ribbon of a headquarters and without a surge of agents deploying to the dozen or so most decisive states.
The campaign held more fundraising events for the wealthy than political rallies for the public, with 38 such fundraisers as Biden traveled across the country for breakout events with top contributors . The campaign named top fundraiser and former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg as campaign co-chair, a sign of how important the cash haul is to Biden’s efforts.
Katzenberg said this was the first real test of Biden’s popularity and support. “He raised more dollars, faster than any candidate.”
“It’s not just a vote of confidence, but a vote of support, when nearly 400,000 grassroots supporters write a check,” he told Reuters.
The decision to run lean could help the campaign get through a grueling 16-month campaign without depleting its resources, leaving more to the crucial final months.
But the campaign could also miss early opportunities to build organization, relationships and awareness in key states from Pennsylvania to Michigan and Georgia. Just 40% of Americans approve of Biden’s presidency, with the economy chief among their concerns, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.
The campaign said second quarter donations came from 394,000 donors and 30% were new contributors since the 2020 campaign.
When asked for a comment on Biden’s fundraising, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung criticized Biden’s record and said Trump enjoys the support of “a wide spectrum of people.” Americans” but did not close the gap in their fundraising totals.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose in Washington, Additional reporting by Nathan Layne Editing by Alistair Bell)