WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s campaign plans a major fundraiser next month in Los Angeles with the past President Barack Obama and Hollywood superstars George Clooney and Julia Roberts, according to a campaign official.
The star-studded cast is expected to boost Biden’s fundraising efforts as Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee try to bridge the former president’s cash gap. won the necessary representatives to secure a nomination that allows him to use all the GOP tools at his disposal.
The high-profile Biden event, set for mid-June, will pit Clooney and Roberts against the campaign’s social media platforms to attract local donors, as well as top celebrities and surrogates, according to details first shared with NBC News. The two Academy Award winners will also provide their names for campaign emails and text messages in hopes of attracting more contributions.
The campaign plans to promote the fundraiser in Los Angeles in a manner similar to Biden’s glitzy evening in New York in late March with Obama and former President Bill Clinton. It brought in 26 million dollars. Biden campaign aides said the amount was a Democratic fundraising record for a single event.
The president is expected to hold an East Coast fundraiser with Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton early this summer, a source familiar with the plans first told NBC News.
For months, the Biden campaign has had a cash advantage over Trump, allowing him to build infrastructure and hire workers in battleground states.
“We’re under no illusions that he’s not going to close the gap,” a Biden campaign adviser said. “But what it can’t take back is the time we spent with all that money doing what we did.”
Biden wrapped up his West Coast fundraising campaign this weekend through Northern California and the Seattle area, raising $10 million in two days, according to a source familiar with the total, who shared the details for the first time with NBC News.
The news of another marquee fundraiser comes as the campaign prepares for new campaign finance filings that could show for the first time that Trump’s campaign has eaten into what has been Biden’s biggest lead in the 2024 race.
The Biden campaign ended March with $85.5 million in cash after raising $43.8 million that month, according to its most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission — nearly triple the Trump campaign’s haul at the time. When factoring in the Democratic National Committee, the Biden campaign’s finances are nearly double those of Trump and the Republican National Committee — $131 million versus $67 million.
Team Biden’s powerful march was boosted by three presidential fundraisers at Radio City Music Hall. But Trump quickly responded with a high-dollar affair in Palm Beach, Florida, in early April. His campaign said the event raised $50.5 million, some of which is likely to be reflected in the next FEC filing.
The Republican National Committee said this month that it expects to report a total of $76 million raised in April, along with the Trump campaign.
The Biden campaign expects to release fundraising numbers for April by the May 20 deadline. One campaign official said Trump’s fundraising should be expected to pick up now that the race for the Republican nomination is over, but insisted Biden’s fundraising momentum remains strong.
Speaking to reporters last week, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said Trump’s campaign has long used its money advantage to build a significant re-election effort on the ground and boost his campaign, regardless of how long Trump is in April. A message on the battlefield state air.
“I’m going to accept whatever dollar figure Trump and his team actually present in their report,” Tyler said.
Biden often saw significant spikes in small-dollar donations around big events like Trump’s victories in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, as well as his State of the Union address in March. April was largely dominated by Trump’s court cases, as Biden made a series of battleground visits to discuss the economy, abortion rights and student debt.
Biden attended just two high-dollar fundraisers in April, in Chicago and New York. One New York-based Biden campaign donor who serves on the national finance committee said the number of events attended by not only Biden but other surrogates has “dried up” after the event with Obama and Clinton because he felt donors were depleted. But the donor expects the pace to pick up again this summer.
Obama has been a key part of Biden’s fundraising efforts. In April, the campaign launched a series of digital ads targeting Obama and Biden to attract viewers to make small dollar donations. Obama’s small-dollar solicitations have helped raise more than $17 million in the year since Biden launched his re-election bid, the campaign says.
The Biden and Obama teams continue to discuss the scope of the former president’s engagement, including a recent meeting between Obama and senior Biden adviser Mike Donilon, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Obama is expected to raise money in the coming months for the Democratic Senate and House campaign committees, as well as the National Democratic Reelection Committee, according to an Obama official.