Joe Biden has a blockbuster fundraising quarter: The Biden-Harris campaign raised $71 million in the third quarter, giving them the largest war chest of any 2024 candidacy.
Joe Biden Is Making It Rain Cash
The Biden-Harris campaign announced last week that it raised over $71 million in the third quarter. That brings their cash on hand total to $91 million which, according to the campaign, is larger than those of all of the Republican candidates in the field put together.
According to NBC News, the $71 million figure represents the combined fundraising of the Joe Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and “a joint fundraising organization that raises money for Democrats’ state parties.” Those same entities had brought in $72 million in the second quarter.
The president’s campaign claims 240,000 new donors this quarter who did not contribute to the campaign in 2020.
Biden has raised so much money because he is running, effectively, unopposed on the Democratic side, and the DNC is openly backing his campaign. Each of his Republican opponents is running their own campaign, although some are backed by associated Super PACs.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign says it has raised $45 million, with $37.5 million in cash on hand.
“We are especially proud of our efforts to exponentially grow our grassroots donor base, now having over a hundred thousand Americans signed up to donate on a recurring basis from now until Election Day,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez said in a statement.
“The momentum is continuing to build for him. As the stakes of the election are becoming clearer and the choice could not be more distinctive, the enthusiasm grows,” Jeffrey Katzenberg, the longtime Hollywood mogul who is now the campaign’s co-chair, told CNN. “All the money that has been raised and is continuing to be raised and the $91 million that is in the bank today, it’s all focused on November of 2024. All of our investment today is focused on those strategic, important places – states that are going to be where this race will be won or lost.”
How much will the fundraising hauls matter, to who ends up as president? There is, of course, more than a year to go before the 2024 presidential election.
The current RealClearPolitics average has Trump leading Biden by 0.8 points, in the event that the two win their respective party nominations and face off in a general election matchup. Recent polls from Fox News and Morning Consult have Biden leading by 1 point, while the most recent Messenger/Harris X poll has Trump ahead by 4, with other recent surveys showing the race tied.
On Monday, per CNN, the White House announced that the president was skipping a planned trip to Colorado in order to remain in Washington and meet with his national security team, to deal with events in Israel and Gaza. Biden and been set to tout green energy investments in Pueblo, Colo., which happens to be the district of the controversial Rep. Lauren Boebert.
Earlier on Monday, the White House had put out a press release about the planned Colorado trip, stating that “Bidenomics is driving record investments in Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s district,” while Boebert had strongly opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, which helped make those investments possible. Colorado remains a swing state, while Boebert is facing a tough re-election fight of her own in that Colorado district.
“The reason to stay home today, Phil, was really to make sure that he could stay focused on what’s going between Israel and Hamas,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said on CNN Monday. “(Biden) will have national security meetings today. I don’t have any travel to speak to or announce, with respect to Israel. There was an invitation from the prime minister, but again, no travel to speak to right now.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been in the Middle East since last week.
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Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles over the years that focus on politics, technology, and the economy for over a decade. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
