Biden touts $172m June campaign haul to counter post-debate angst

WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden’s campaign said it raised US$127 million (S$172 million) in June, offering a lifeline to the Democratic incumbent as he faces pressure to step aside following

a harrowing debate performance.

The haul, which represented the Biden campaign’s best fund-raising month of the election cycle, included US$38 million raised in the four days starting on June 27, the day of the presidential debate – the first between Mr Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump this cycle. 

Biden aides have pointed to their ability to rake in cash despite his performance as evidence that the President retained his party’s support and had not irrevocably damaged his campaign. The President himself attended a series of high-dollar fund-raisers across the New York area over the weekend, where he pledged to donors that he would work harder and signalled his intention to remain in the race.

“This election will be close and the stakes couldn’t be higher – which is why today’s fund-raising haul matters so much,” campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. 

Still, a number of high-profile Democratic donors have sounded the alarm in the aftermath of the debate, with some urging Mr Biden

to consider stepping aside

. While top campaign and party officials have spent recent days trying to reassure the President’s backers, Mr Biden could face trouble if post-debate polls show a collapse in support.

But Mr Biden’s sizeable war chest is one reason Democratic operatives have downplayed the possibility of another candidate stepping in.

The campaign said Mr Biden and the Democratic Party had US$240 million in cash on hand, up from US$212 million at the end of May.

Even as it stockpiled more cash, the campaign has spent heavily on media and resources to get out the vote in November. The campaign has more than 200 offices in battleground states, staffed by more than 1,000 people.

It spent more than US$50 million on paid media in June.

Grassroots donors provided nearly two-thirds of Mr Biden’s total funds raised in June, and the campaign added 864,000 new small-dollar donors in the second quarter. More than 1.5 million donors made over 2.8 million contributions over that period.

Nearly half of grassroots donations following the first presidential debate came from first-time donors to the campaign.

Trump has yet to report his June fund-raising haul but raised more than Mr Biden for the first time in April and May, likely narrowing a once-formidable fund-raising deficit against the President. 

Mr Biden has been ramping up his money-raising efforts in recent weeks, including a star-studded Hollywood fund-raiser in June that featured celebrities, such as George Clooney and Julia Roberts as well as former president Barack Obama, which the campaign said raised US$30 million. Another June fund-raising event in Virginia, where he was joined by former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, raised another US$8 million. 

While Mr Biden’s June tally is a sizeable jump over his May haul of US$85 million, it falls short of the US$141 million Trump raised that month. 

Trump’s operation earlier in the campaign faced a potential cash crunch as his legal challenges drained his coffers, but the former president has rebounded, aided by his conviction in a Manhattan hush-money trial that rallied Republicans behind him and an intensified outreach to deep-pocketed donors who have been a receptive audience for his pledges to cut taxes and regulations if he returns to the White House. 

The fund-raising announcement on July 2 comes on the heels of another dramatic event that may shape the race between Mr Biden and Trump. On July 1,

the US Supreme Court ruled that Trump has some immunity from criminal charges

over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Mr Biden, a decision that means any trial in that case is unlikely before November’s election. 

Campaigns and party committees are due to report detailed information on their donors and spending to the Federal Election Commission on July 20. Bloomberg