OMEN: Biden campaign outraised Trump in donations last quarter
In the United States, we always have three elections on the way to the Oval Office; the first two elections involve the primaries and the financial support for the campaign.
Biden has no primary to worry about, but today Biden won the money race, at least for Q3. He also won Q2.
Americans are voting with their wallets, and the vote is very much pro-Biden.
Today, in a press release, the Biden-Harris campaign announced:
“Today, Team Biden-Harris announced that it raised more than $71 million in the third quarter of 2023 — on par with the Q2 haul — demonstrating continued strong support and enthusiasm for the President and Vice President’s reelection campaign.”
“The team is also reporting today that it has a historic nearly $91 million in cash on hand, the highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the cycle. Team Biden-Harris’ Q3 fundraising is significantly more than any of the GOP 2024 campaigns, and the team’s cash-on-hand is widely expected to be more than the entire GOP field combined.”
Campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg spoke about the importance of the cash haul in an interview with CNN:
“The momentum is continuing to build for him. As the stakes of the election are becoming clearer and the choice could not be more distinctive, the enthusiasm grows.”
“All the money that has been raised and is continuing to be raised and the $91 million that is in the bank today, it’s all focused on November of 2024. All of our investment today is focused on those strategic, important places – states that are going to be where this race will be won or lost.”
Katzenberg also noted that the advantage is made that much more important by the fact that Biden-Harris do not need to spend a dime in a primary and can focus their entire campaign on the general election.
The donations also prove that Democrats do not lack enthusiasm or feel threatened by Biden’s age.
If anything, it’s support in recognition of the fact that Biden has been a fine president during tough times and that Trump remains the greatest existential threat to the United States’s democracy since the Civil War.
This is very welcome news in an election that couldn’t possibly be more important because the dynamic of the contest appears to be “Democracy versus Fascism.”
Additionally, the closer the race appears, the more that the MAGAs will assume that any Biden victory is rigged. It is imperative that Biden win, and it would be much less stressful if Biden won by a significant margin.
It is wonderful to see that many donating to Biden are new donors.
BREAKING: President Biden’s campaign raises a whopping $71.2 million in Q3 — $26 million MORE than Donald Trump and nearly the same as Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley combined.
The campaign added 240,000 new donors since April who did not contribute in 2020.
The average… pic.twitter.com/T5XqQPWtjd
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) October 15, 2023
New donors practically ensure continued support, perhaps even growing support, from now until the election.
It may not be ideal, but a presidential campaign marches on its money.
The news was certainly a hit on “X”:
🚨 BREAKING President Biden announced this morning that his campaign raised a whopping $71.2 million in Q3!
That's $26 million MORE than Donald Trump and almost the same as Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley combined.
Don't tell me there isn't enthusiasm for President Biden… pic.twitter.com/EoSO5ToMPr
— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) October 15, 2023
Here is a different graph that highlights differences using other metrics, one of which is that the 240,000 new donors make up 34% of the total donors.
Breaking:
Team Biden-Harris Raises More Than $71 Million in Q3
Doubled its individual contributions since launch to a total of more than 1.4 million and has brought in over 240,000 new donors who did not contribute to the campaign in 2020
34% percent are new donors
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/IrSOAmKzpT
— Eric Jotkoff (@Eric_Jotkoff) October 15, 2023
As with everything, there is a conspiracy theory attributed to all bad news for MAGA:
Biden raises $71M in Q3, far outpacing Trump, despite low approval ratings. Campaign claims 97% of donations are under $200. Is this a genuine grassroots surge, or a sleight of hand where donors break up payments to give the illusion of broad support?
Who's funding this failure? pic.twitter.com/eoxPZXSDnq— Hallock Inc. (@HallockInc) October 15, 2023
Well, of course, it’s thousands of Democrats plotting together to make things appear as they are. No. It is simply bad news, and MAGA doesn’t accept anything bad at face value.
It is all a conspiracy against the 75% of Americans who support Trump. (This is what they believe. Trump says that he’d win California if it wasn’t rigged. Anything “bad” is a conspiracy theory.)
But this is nothing but good news for Democrats and we should be proud. We should support the president because he’s doing a fantastic job, and he remains the division between American democracy and American authoritarian chaos.
I can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com and on X @JasonMiciak.
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author
