President Biden’s campaign announced Friday a combined fundraising of more than $72 million from April to June along with the Democratic National Committee and a joint fundraising committee, a figure that far exceeds what former President Donald J. Trump and other Republican leaders have announced the presidential candidates.
The campaign said that, along with the DNC and the committee, it had a combined $77 million in cash on hand at the end of the reporting period. He did not disclose how that money was divided between the campaign and the committees.
“While Republicans are burning resources in a divisive primary focused on who can take the most extreme MAGA positions, we are significantly outperforming every single one of them,” said Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Biden’s campaign manager.
While the total fundraising falls well short of the $105 million Mr. Trump and his allies raised during the same period in their 2020 re-election campaign, it will likely serve as a salve for Democrats who are have been privately pessimistic about Mr. Biden’s falling approval ratings. The financial numbers show that whatever private doubts Democrats have about Biden’s re-election campaign, the party’s donor class is on board.
“This is proof positive that this party and its people and the country believe in Joe Biden and the accomplishments of this administration,” said Henry R. Muñoz III, former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee. “This reaffirms Joe Biden’s call to the workers and everyday heroes of this country.”
At the dawn of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, he and the DNC raised a combined $86 million between April and June 2011.
However, comparisons to Mr. Obama’s 2012 campaign fundraising efforts are imprecise because a 2014 Supreme Court decision and other legal changes allowed candidates and parties to form joint fundraising committees. They can accept one-time donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars. .
And in Trump’s re-election bid, he had a significant early lead over Biden. Mr. Trump formally announced and began fundraising for the 2020 race the day he took office in 2017, while Mr. Biden, who at the end of March it had $1.36 million leftover in his campaign account, he did not actively solicit money for his campaign until he made his run official in April.
Biden began his 2024 campaign on April 25, nearly a month after the fundraising quarter began. His first major fundraising event was in mid-May in New York, and he himself did not conduct any significant fundraising during the heat of negotiations over the federal debt limit extension at the end of May.
In June, Mr. Biden traveled to San Francisco and Chicago to meet with major donors before the fundraising period closed.
Although the Biden campaign didn’t reveal many relevant details about its finances on Friday, it highlighted more than 394,000 donors and pointed to the success of online advertising programs during notable moments of the Republican primary campaign, such as the televised town hall event. of Trump in May and the campaign ad for Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida. Half of the merchandise sold in the Biden campaign’s online store, the campaign said, features the theme “Dark Brandon.”
Mr. Biden was never a prolific fundraiser before becoming the party’s de facto presidential candidate in the spring of 2020. Three other Democratic candidates raised more money than he did during the third quarter of 2019, long before his reemergence as primary season. unfolded.
But once Democrats rallied around Biden and against Trump as the pandemic gripped the country, Biden emerged as a magnet for donors large and small.
“Just like 2020 was a record year, I imagine 2024 will be a record year,” said Alex Lasry, a former Senate candidate and member of the Wisconsin DNC who is co-treasurer of the Democratic Governors Association.
Republicans vying to replace Biden will not have the benefit of raising money through their national committee until one emerges as the party’s nominee. Biden and the Democrats who support him also have the advantage of not having to spend a lot of money to get through what Republicans expect to be a difficult primary campaign.
Trump said his campaign and joint fundraising committee had raised $35 million in the second quarter. Mr. DeSantis announced that he had raised around $20 million. Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, raised $4.3 million for her campaign and an additional $3 million for her affiliated committees. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said his campaign had raised $6.1 million.
Other Republican presidential candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, have not released their second-quarter fundraising totals.
Full campaign finance reports for all federal candidates, which will include spending and an indication of how much of their money comes from small donors, are due Saturday to the Federal Election Commission.
Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed reporting.
