President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised $85 million in May, the second-best fundraising month of this election cycle.
However, the money raised by the DNC and Biden is far short of the staggering haul raised by the campaign for former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee last month.
When announcing fundraising figures for May on Thursday evening, the campaign for Biden also highlighted that they had a massive $212 million cash on hand by the time May ended.
“Our strong and consistent fundraising program grew by millions of people in May, a clear sign of strong and growing enthusiasm for the President and Vice President every single month,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, in a statement.
That announcement from Biden came on the final day the presidential campaigns had to file their fundraising figures for May with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
However, the Trump campaign didn’t wait for the deadline to tout its fundraising haul for May.
Biden’s campaign announced two and a half weeks ago that they, along with the RNC, fueled partly by the former president’s guilty verdicts in his criminal trial, brought in a shocking $141 million fundraising in May.
That increased from the $76 million they earned in April when they topped the Democratic National Committee and President Biden for the first time in their 2024 election rematch.
The Trump campaign, spotlighting their grassroots appeal, said the average dollar donation was $70.27, with 25% of May donors being first-time contributors to the former president’s 2024 presidential run.
The Trump cash announcement came as a result of what his campaign referred to as “record-shattering” fundraising immediately following his guilty verdict on all 34 felony counts in the first trial of a current or former president in the history of the United States.
Trump’s team highlights funds raised after verdict
The former president’s campaign highlighted that in the first 24 hours after the evening’s verdict, they, along with the RNC, took in almost $53 million in fundraising, counted toward the May total.
President Biden’s campaign additionally raised funds following the Trump verdict, with a source saying, “The 24 hours after the verdict were one of the best fundraising 24 hours of the Biden campaign since launch.”
Biden’s May haul came without significant fundraising events, and the president was headlining. Biden claims the majority of its fundraising in May came from grassroots donors.
The Biden campaign has been utilizing its funds to build up what looks to be a formidable ground operation in the crucial battleground states. Hours earlier, it announced that it had hired its 1,000th staffer. The president’s campaign enjoys a substantial organizational advantage over Trump’s team in terms of get-out-the-vote ground game efforts and grassroots outreach.
“The money we continue to raise matters, and it’s helping the campaign build out an operation that invests in reaching and winning the voters who will decide this election,” highlighted Chavez Rodriguez.
The Biden campaign appears to enjoy a significant cash-on-hand advantage over Donald Trump, whose campaign didn’t report its cash-on-hand amount in announcing their fundraising in May.
The campaigns aren’t required legally to report those figures until July’s end, after the close of the second quarter of fundraising.
President Biden enjoyed a $146 million to $88 million cash-on-hand advantage over Trump at March’s end, after the close of the first fundraising quarter of the year.
Trump has aimed to close his fundraising gap with Joe Biden, who had consistently outpaced Trump in monthly fundraising.
Trump’s haul in April was boosted by a record-setting $50.5 million that his campaign took in at a single event early in the month with top-dollar Republican donors hosted at the billionaire investor John Paulson’s Palm Beach, Florida, home.
Both candidates have already held top-dollar fundraising events in June.
President Biden set a new fundraising record for the Democratic Party — per his campaign — hauling in over $30 million at a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles with Hollywood actors Julia Roberts and George Clooney, late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and former President Obama.
He raked in $8.1 million at a fundraiser at the Northern Virginia home of former Governor Terry McAuliffe, where he was additionally joined by former President Bill Clinton, former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the standard-bearer in 2016 for Democrats.
In the meantime, Trump’s team touted they brought in around $27.5 million during a fundraising swing by the former president in Nevada and California a week ago.
Along with public opinion polling, fundraising is the key metric to measure a candidate’s strength and campaign. Funds raised can be used to build up get-out-the-vote operations and grassroots outreach, travel, ads, staffing, and other things.
