Biden heads to California to rev up his fundraising in anticipation of costly rematch with Trump
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will head to California on Tuesday to raise more money for his reelection bid during a three-day tour of the state.
Kicking off the trip, Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday that they had raised $42 million in contributions from 422,000 donors in January. Biden ended January with $130 million in cash. Campaign officials said this is the highest total any Democratic candidate has collected at this point in the cycle.
Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez called the capture “an unquestionable show of force to start the election year.”
“As Team Biden-Harris continues to build on its fundraising machine, Republicans are divided – either spending money fighting Donald Trump or spending money supporting Donald Trump’s extreme and losing agenda,” she said .
The campaign will need to continue raising money for what is expected to be a hotly contested and expensive battle with former President Trump, who has emerged as the Republican Party’s likely nominee.
This week’s trip to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area marks Biden’s third visit to Southern California in just over two months for political events. He is trying to make up for lost time after largely avoiding the Democratic donor stronghold during last year’s strikes by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA.
Biden will first go to Los Angeles, where he will participate in a fundraiser. He will also make campaign stops in San Francisco and Los Altos Hills this week and deliver a policy speech near Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Biden made a brief visit to Los Angeles earlier this month to meet with supporters in the city’s upscale Bel Air neighborhood. He and first lady Jill Biden also spent a weekend in the Los Angeles area in December for campaign events.
The first lady will travel to Guilford, Connecticut, on Tuesday to hold a fundraiser on her husband’s behalf.
While the Bidens will pursue donors with deep pockets this week, the campaign points to the number of smaller donations it has raised as an encouraging sign for the president.
The campaign says 97% of the 3 million donations it has received so far have been less than $200 each. Biden has also received pledges from 158,000 “endorsement donors” who have committed to giving monthly — more than double the amount Biden had at this point in the 2020 cycle.
Those totals include donations to Biden’s political operation and to a network of joint fundraising arrangements with the national and state Democratic parties. Biden’s 2020 campaign has raised more than $1 billion, and could need even more in a likely Trump rematch.
“These proceeds will go directly toward reaching the voters who will decide this election,” said TJ Ducklo, senior communications adviser for the Biden campaign.
Biden in recent days has seized on Trump’s comments questioning the U.S. commitment to defend NATO allies from attack as “dangerous” and “un-American.” Trump said earlier this month that he once warned that he would allow Russia to do whatever it wants to NATO member states that are “backward” in spending 2% of their gross domestic product on defense.
The Biden campaign last week launched digital ads in three battleground states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — criticizing Trump for his threat to NATO countries. Biden has also railed against Republicans in the House of Representatives for blocking a $95 billion foreign aid bill that includes $60 billion in funding for Ukraine’s war with Russia.
“The idea that we will leave Ukraine, the idea that we will split NATO, is totally contrary to the interests of the United States of America and it is contrary to our word that we have given. all the way back to Eisenhower,” Biden told reporters on Sunday.