Biden team says it has $155M at its disposal
The campaign says it is the largest war chest amassed by any Democratic presidential candidate at this point in the cycle.
President Joe Biden’s campaign said it raised $53 million in February, adding to his sizable cash haul heading into the general election.
The Biden campaign said it has $155 million on hand, a total which includes funds from the campaign, the Democratic National Committee and related joint fundraising committees. It’s the largest war chest amassed by any Democratic presidential candidate at this point in the cycle, according to a Biden campaign memo announcing the totals. Aides released the total ahead of the monthly Federal Elections Commission filing deadline on Wednesday.
The Biden campaign has tried to quiet Democratic nerves around the election by pointing to the significant cash edge it has over former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee. Biden, who faced only nominal primary challengers, socked away money over the last year, while Trump spent it on his campaign and his mounting legal bills. Biden and the DNC had a $41 million cash advantage over Trump and the RNC at the end of January. Trump and the RNC haven’t yet released their February totals.
Fundraising remains a bright spot for the Biden campaign, even as the president continues to trail Trump in national and battleground state polls. But Biden’s 2024 totals still lag behind Trump’s from the 2020 cycle, when the former president and the RNC hauled in $86 million in February 2020.
“We’re proud of the record-breaking fundraising machine we’ve built that is going toward reaching the voters about the stakes of this election – to expanding our footprint in the states, investing in paid media, and having our principals barnstorm the country,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement released on Sunday. “And we’re just getting started.”
In particular, the Biden campaign touted its small-dollar fundraising operation, confirming that February was its strongest grassroots fundraising month since it launched last April. A fundraiser contest scheduled for the end of March — where Biden, former President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton will appear — has already drawn more than $4 million in donations over the last month.
Biden’s February totals comes a week after the campaign announced a $30 million ad onslaught, a spending program that’s kicking off months earlier than previous elections.