President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) raised more than $71 million for his reelection campaign during the third quarter, which ended on Sept. 30, far more than his leading rival, former President Donald Trump, and other Republicans seeking the 2024 Republican nomination.
This was nearly on par with the Biden campaign’s second-quarter fundraising of more than $72 million, showing that donors are willing to stand behind the president despite his low approval ratings and widespread concerns about his age.
“I think it’s a huge haul,” Mark Mellman, a political strategist and consultant, told The Epoch Times.
“It reflects concern in the country about the possibility of electing Trump, and I think it reflects the commitment that Democrats have to electing Joe Biden. People talk about Trump’s hauls all the time. And here, Biden out-raised Trump significantly.”
Liberal megadonor and billionaire George Soros, for example, is one of the donors who contributed $250,000 to President Biden’s campaign.
Democrats had $91 million in cash on hand as of the end of last month, the highest amount ever by a Democrat at this stage of an election cycle, according to the Biden campaign.
“This quarter’s fundraising haul and historic cash on hand speak to the very real enthusiasm and support,” Julie Chávez Rodriguez, manager of the president’s reelection campaign, said in a statement. “These numbers are a testament to one of our core objectives early in this campaign: raise the resources needed to run an aggressive campaign that will win in November 2024.”
“I think that is a fair comparison because both of them are incumbents—Trump was the incumbent in 2020 and Biden’s the incumbent today,” Republican political strategist Ford O'Connell told The Epoch Times.
“While $91 million is a lot of cash to have on hand, it’s quite clear that Joe Biden has an enthusiasm problem among the Democratic base.”
President Trump’s 2024 campaign announced on Oct. 4 that it raised $45.5 million in the third quarter of 2023, even though the former president faces several indictments.
That was more than triple the $15 million that went to his nearest GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to the United Nations, came in third, raising $11 million in the third quarter.
The Trump campaign stated that it had more than $37.5 million in cash, with nearly $36 million of that designated for the Republican primaries.
The third quarter was particularly notable, the Trump campaign stated, considering that political campaigns normally see “lagging fundraising support” during the summer months. His campaign called the fundraising totals “an impressive testament to the overwhelming grassroots support behind President Trump.”
The Biden campaign also saw an increase in grassroots donations, which accounted for more than half of its fundraising revenue in the third quarter.
“The success we’re seeing in fundraising this year is due in part to the last three years of DNC investments in our finance team and then our grassroots fundraising team,” Virginia McGregor, treasurer of the DNC, said on Oct. 6 at the party’s fall meeting in St. Louis.
The early investments, she noted, “gave us the resources today to support the party and the president’s reelection campaign.”
Ms. McGregor also said the DNC is spending money on critical initiatives that distinguish the party from the Republican Party, such as combating “the extreme MAGA Republican messaging” in all 50 states, red or blue.
“Wherever the Republicans are gathering, we are going to be there, too. For example, if you were on a Michigan highway last weekend, ahead of Trump’s speech, you would have seen the DNC billboards calling out Mr. Trump’s record of failing American auto workers,” she said.
“And if you remember the Republican presidential debate last week at the Reagan Library, we had planes pulling banners calling out the Republican Party for their extreme MAGA agenda.”
