President Joe Biden’s campaign and related fundraising committees, which power the Democratic National Committee and state parties, raised $97 million in the final three months of 2023, the campaign announced Monday, citing a significant closing increase from small-dollar donors.
Biden’s campaign also announced that his political machine has $117 million to spend through 2024, sending a signal of what the eventual Republican nominee will face as the GOP begins the nominating process with the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
The presentation is based on the $72 million and $71 million Biden raised in the second and third fundraising cycles, respectively, for the President, the Democratic National Committee and the joint fundraising committees that feed the state Democratic Party organizations. It won’t be known exactly how much the respective fundraisers have raised until the campaign files its year-end reports with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 31.
“Proudly supported by strong and growing local enthusiasm, this historic visit sends a clear message: The Team Biden-Harris coalition knows the stakes in 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 the American people know the risks and are acting early to help defeat the extreme MAGA Republican agenda again.”
The surge in year-end fundraising also coincided with the end of the Hollywood writers’ holiday at the end of September. The president, Vice President Kamala Harris and other top surrogates have not held high-dollar events in Southern California during the nearly five-month standoff.
Since Biden announced his re-election campaign in late April, 1 million supporters have contributed 2.3 million, and the campaign says 130,000 so-called donors contribute each month. Total giving in the fourth quarter averaged $41.88, the campaign said.
Small-dollar giving has accelerated as the GOP field challenging former President Donald Trump begins to win, the campaign says. And a campaign spokesman predicted that his fundraising will exceed the GOP field of candidates by “several times.”
There’s no direct comparison to the Republican field to make right now because GOP candidates aren’t yet fundraising with the Republican National Committee or state parties. But they’re spending big on the nomination contest, and while Biden spent millions on ads last year, he’s already building his accounts for the general election race.
The Biden campaign’s total cash on hand rose every quarter last year as the campaign expanded its slower operations and shifted its biggest spend to an early TV blitz.
Some Democrats have expressed concern about the lack of infrastructure in battleground states. The campaign said it is now starting to expand state by state, with leads in early voting states on the Democratic primary calendar.