US President Biden leaves the White House in Washington, USA, on May 9, 2024, heading to California to attend a campaign fundraiser.
Craig Hudson | Reuters
President Joe Biden’s reelection effort and the Democratic National Committee raised a combined $85 million in May, according to exclusive data provided to CNBC by the Biden campaign.
The amount marks the president’s second-highest fundraising month of the cycle, behind only March.
Still, it lagged far behind the $141 million that former President Donald Trump’s political operations and the Republican National Committee claimed to have raised that month.
May fundraising left the Biden campaign and its allies with $212 million in cash on hand at the end of the month, up from $192 million at the end of April, data shows. The majority of May’s fundraising came from grassroots donors, the campaign said.
“Our strong and sustained fundraising program added millions of people in May, a clear demonstration of the impact each month has on the president,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. and the Vice President’s enthusiasm is growing.
“The money we continue to raise is important and is helping the campaign build an investment operation to attract and win over the voters who will decide this election.”
The Biden team has been using the funds to launch a massive ground campaign across the country, announcing earlier Thursday that it had just hired its 1,000th employee.
In comparison, the Trump campaign has made slow progress. Staffing in key statescausing concern among some Republican strategists.
The May data underscore how presidential fundraising dynamics have shifted in recent weeks in favor of Trump, who has significantly outraised his opponents in each of the past two months. In April, Trump ally groups and the Republican National Committee raised $76 million from Biden, while the Democratic National Committee raised $51 million.
The momentum in May was driven in large part by small-dollar fundraising ahead of Trump’s trial and conviction at the end of the month on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush payments. The campaign said it had raised nearly $53 million, more than a third of its total, in the 24 hours after the verdict was announced.
Biden campaign officials emphasized that Biden, by contrast, has not had any major fundraisers or events this month. May was the second-best month for grassroots fundraising for Biden’s reelection campaign and the best month for recurring donations so far.
One statistic the Trump campaign did not report this month was its cash on hand and is not required by law to report until July. As of April, the Trump campaign’s total war chest was about $60 million less than Biden’s, $88 million versus $146 million.
It’s unclear this year whether Trump’s latest fundraising efforts have helped him build up his cash reserves.
Both businesses are on track to post impressive numbers in June after a quiet month in May: Biden’s star-studded Hollywood fundraiser last week raised more than $30 million, while Trump’s Trump’s West Coast fundraiser earlier this month raised about $27.5 million.
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