United States: Joe Biden’s campaign and linked fundraising organizations that run the Democratic National Committee and state parties raised $97 million in the last three months of 2023, the campaign revealed Monday, claiming a large closing increase from small-dollar donations.
Enthusiasm Propels Biden to Historic Haul
According to the report, more than 520,000 donors provided 926,000 or more contributions throughout the quarter. The Biden campaign announced on Monday that it had raised $235 million from its inception in April to the end of 2023, finishing the year with US$117 million in cash on hand, the greatest number gathered by any Democratic candidate at this point in the cycle.
Biden Finishes 2023 with Record Cash on Hand
“This historic haul — proudly powered by strong and growing grassroots enthusiasm — sends a clear message: the Team Biden-Harris coalition knows the stakes of this election and is ready to win this November,” campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Our democracy and hard-fought basic rights and freedoms are on the line in 2024, and these numbers prove that the American people know the stakes and are taking action early to help defeat the extreme MAGA Republican agenda again.”
The GOP primary begins Monday with the Iowa caucus, with Trump as the early front-runner — and the Biden team emphasized that he and his top primary opponents have already spent $100 million on advertising in the leadoff primary state alone.
Biden’s Economic Narrative
Biden visited three stores in Pennsylvania on Friday to argue that his policies had helped build the economy and stimulate small businesses. It was a departure from his regular prepared remarks, which were intended to stress how his economic policies have ensured good employment — despite the fact that they have triggered inflation, which concerns voters.
Since the Biden campaign’s inception, approximately 1 million supporters have contributed over 2.3 million contributions, and 97% of all fourth-quarter 2023 donations were less than US$200, with the average contribution being US$41.88, the campaign reported. These totals include contributions to Biden’s political operation as well as a network of collaborative fundraising agreements with the national and state Democratic parties.
Biden’s campaign stated that December was his most successful fundraising month to date, surpassing the previous record established in November. That helped last year’s fourth quarter outperform the period from July to September, when Biden and his party reported raising more than US$71 million.
According to the campaign, the president has held 110 fundraisers since his campaign began, 39 of which occurred in the fourth quarter of last year. That included a series of fundraisers before the Christmas holidays that took him to Boston for three events, one of which featured singer-songwriter James Taylor, as well as three days in California with Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand.
Biden, who routinely refers to himself as the “most pro-union” president in US history, had previously avoided raising funds in Los Angeles for months due to the writers and actors’ strikes. It was intended to appease those donors who have privately complained that the president was not doing enough to bolster his campaign coffers ahead of November’s election, which is expected to be hard-fought and tight.
Despite the fact that Biden campaign executives had traveled extensively for fundraising purposes, they attempted to moderate expectations. They stated in December that they anticipated to raise approximately US$67 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, which is commensurate with previous Democratic contenders’ end-of-year totals.
Biden’s most successful fundraising Month
Instead, Biden’s most recent haul surpassed that of President Barack Obama, who raised an un-inflation-adjusted US$68 million with the DNC in the final three months of 2011, ahead of his victorious reelection the following year. Trump’s campaign announced raising US$46 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 and having US$102.7 million on hand ahead of the 2020 contest, which it finally lost to Biden — though its combined war chest with the Republican National Committee at the time was significantly more formidable.