Donation reports show that President Joe Biden is the candidate of millionaires and billionaires.
Ten donors including Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and hotel magnate Stewart W. Bainum Jr. have given $500,000 or more, while another 82 donors have given $100,000 or more, according to The New York Times.
Joe Biden referred to himself as “Middle-Class Joe” once upon a time; however, his performance as president and concern over his age could be causing smaller donors to stay away.
In the quarter that ended on June 30, Biden took in slightly more than $10 million from donors contributing $200 or less. Twenty-one percent of Biden’s donations came from small donors four years ago.
“That figure is about half of the $21 million President Barack Obama’s campaign raised during the same period of his 2012 re-election effort,” The New York Times reported.
Excuses: Democrats Downplay Joe Biden Donation Doldrums
Democrats have worked to explain away the reduced donations by saying that Google and Apple have made it harder to see which donation solicitations have been opened by their intended recipients and which have not.
Another possible explanation thrown around is that Democrats aren’t as motivated to give by Donald Trump’s presidency as they were in 2019 and 2020.
The New York Times notes that small-dollar donations are down across the political spectrum.
“If I were on the Biden team right now, I’d be really happy with the numbers,” said Kenneth Pennington, a partner at Middle Seat. “It’s a terrible fund-raising environment, and he’s not launching a new campaign.”
Democrats think things will improve once their voter base wakes up to what is at stake.
“Once Democratic donors become focused on the Republican primary and what’s at stake in the 2024 election, the Biden campaign will have no problem raising record amounts of money online,” said Lauren Miller, who served as digital director to Elizabeth Warren’s Senate campaigns.
Republicans Blame Biden Policies
Republicans, however, blame Biden’s policies for his lackluster fundraising. They say that the fact Biden’s campaign is being held up by the same wealthy people Democrats constantly bash is proof that his talk about building the economy “the middle out and the bottom up” is a rhetorical gimmick.
“They know that rising prices and higher interest costs have clobbered their standard of living, reduced their wealth, and made them less secure financially. The Conservative Heritage Foundation estimated in January that “the average American household has lost the equivalent of $7,400 in annual income since Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20, 2021”, with an analyst saying the sum is “more than a month’s salary for many families and the equivalent of more than a 10% pay cut…,” Fox News Digital columnist Liz Peek wrote.
She notes that polling shows that only 44% of people making $100,000 or more approve of Biden’s job performance, while only 37% of those making less than $50,000 and 39% of those making between $50,000 and $100,000 approve of Biden’s job performance.
“Why would that be? Biden claims Bidenomics is bringing back jobs, and especially manufacturing jobs. He brags that his policies have been a boon to the middle class. Biden’s problem? The middle class knows better,” Peek wrote.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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