WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee raised more than $72 million for his reelection in the 10 weeks since he announced his 2024 candidacy, his campaign announced Friday, in a strong but not record performance by an incumbent.
That is all the money raised between April 25, when Biden made his announcement, and the end of June, and includes donations to his campaign and to a network of joint fundraising arrangements with the national and state parties. By comparison, President Barack Obama raised $85.6 million during the April-to-June quarter in 2011 when he launched his campaign for a second term, though he announced his candidacy three weeks earlier that April than did Biden.
In 2019, then-President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee raised a combined $105 million in the second quarter — about $80,000 per day more than Biden took in this year, when Biden was benefiting from higher campaign finance donation limits due to inflation.
Biden, who has cleared the field of any serious rivals for for the Democratic nomination, has nevertheless been confronting persistent concerns from within the party about voter enthusiasm for an 80-year-old candidate. The fundraising number is likely to quiet but not eliminate some concerns about whether Biden can assemble the support necessary for a successful campaign. His 2020 effort topped $1 billion in donations.
Surveys show Democrats would prefer another candidate to run, but there is no consensus within the party about an alternative.
Biden’s sum is more than double Donald Trump’s during those three months for his 2024 effort, though the former president and other Republicans in the race are not jointly raising money with the GOP and therefore face lower federal contribution limits for top donors.
Biden’s campaign did not detail the total raised directly by his campaign, which would allow a more direct comparison to the Republican candidates. That figure is set to be reported Saturday to the Federal Election Commission.
“While Republicans are burning through resources in a divisive primary focused on who can take the most extreme MAGA positions, we are significantly outraising every single one of them -– because our team’s strength is our grassroots supporters,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in a statement.
The campaign said the total came from nearly 400,000 donors, and that 97% of donations were under $200 and more than 30% of donors had not given to Biden in 2020.
