President Biden’s campaign announced on Friday a combined fundraising of more than $72 million from April to June along with the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committee, a figure that far exceeds what former President Donald J. Trump and other top Republicans did. announced presidential candidates.
The campaign said that along with the DNC and the committee, it had a combined $77 million in cash at the end of the reporting period. It did not reveal how that money was divided between the campaign and the commissions.
“While Republicans are burning resources in a divisive primary focused on who can take the most extreme MAGA positions, we are significantly infuriating every single one of them,” said Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Mr. Biden’s campaign manager.
While the fundraising total is far less than the $105 million Mr. Trump and his allies raised during the same period in his 2020 re-election campaign, it is likely to serve as a salvo for Democrats who have been privately unhappy with Mr. Biden’s declining approval ratings. The financial numbers prove that whatever private misgivings Democrats have about Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign, the party’s donor class is fully 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 director of the Democratic National Committee. “This reaffirms Joe Biden’s appeal to the working people 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.
Comparisons to Mr. Obama’s fundraising efforts for the 2012 campaign are imprecise, however, because a 2014 Supreme Court ruling and other legal changes allowed candidates and parties to form joint fundraising committees that can accept single donations from hundreds of thousands of dollars .
And in Mr. Trump’s re-election bid, he had a significant head start over Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump formally announced and began fundraising for the 2020 race on the day he was inaugurated in 2017, while Mr. Biden, who at the end of March had 1.36 million USD remained in his campaign account, did not actively solicit money for his campaign until he made his run official in April.
Mr. Biden launched 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 did not do any significant fundraising himself during the heat of negotiations over extending the federal debt ceiling in late May.
In June, Mr. Biden traveled to San Francisco and Chicago to meet with major donors before the end of the fundraising period.
Mr. Biden was never a prolific fundraiser before he became the party’s de facto presidential nominee in the spring of 2020. Three other Democratic candidates raised more money than he did during the third quarter of 2019, well before his resurgence as the primary season unfolded
But after Democrats united around Mr. Biden and against Mr. Trump as the pandemic gripped the country, Mr. Biden emerged as a magnet for donors big 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 DNC member from Wisconsin who is the co-treasurer of the Democratic Governors Association.
The Republicans vying to replace Mr. Biden will not have the benefit of raising money through their national committee until one emerges as the party’s nominee. Mr. Biden and supportive Democrats also have the advantage of not having to spend a lot of money to get through what is expected to be a rough primary campaign for Republicans.
Mr. Trump said his campaign and his joint fundraising committee raised $35 million in the second quarter. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida announced that he had raised about $20 million. Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, raised $4.3 million for her campaign and another $3 million for her affiliated committees. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said his campaign raised $6.1 million.
Other Republican presidential candidates, including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman, did not release their fundraising totals for the second quarter.
Full reports on the campaign finances of all federal candidates, which will include expenses and an indication of how much of their money came from small donors, are due on Saturday to the Federal Election Commission.
Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed reporting.