Key Facts
- While Republicans have been spending leading up to the primaries, incumbent Joe Biden has been able to stockpile the funds he’s raised.
- The Biden campaign announced it raised $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, after a $71 million third quarter.
- Biden’s 2024 campaign has $117 million in cash on hand, which is more than any Democratic candidate in history.
It’s good to be the president.
While Joe Biden faces many headaches as the country’s executive officer, including low approval ratings and a pair of foreign wars, fundraising for his reelection campaign is not one of them.
| Candidate | Party | BetOnline | Bovada | Bookmaker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Trump | Republican | -175 | -165 | -184 |
| Kamala Harris | Democrat | +153 | +145 | +163 |
While a crowded field of Republican candidates has spent lavishly in an effort to come out on top, Biden has faced only nominal challenges in seeking the Democratic nomination. That means, while Donald Trump, Nikki Haley and the other Republicans who have abandoned their campaign efforts, have spent millions of dollars in attack ads, Biden has been able to raise money and stockpile it for the general election later this year.
The Republican candidates spent a combined $77 million on the New Hampshire primary alone, and that’s after a similar spending spree leading up to the Iowa caucuses. Nikki Haley’s Super PAC reported that it spent more than $60 million in the second half of 2023, as she moved up the list of challengers at the top political betting sites.
Meanwhile, Biden has raised money by pointing at the alternatives battling it out on the Republican side, then squirreled it away until he needs it to fend off the eventual Republican nominee leading up to November.
2024: The top fundraiser for the Democrats is Nikki Haley.
She drains the GOP coffers and replenishes the Dems.
And GOP allows this?— Adam Townsend (@adamscrabble) January 25, 2024
How Much Has Biden Raised?
The Biden campaign announced that it raised $97 million in the last quarter of 2023. That included a grassroots, small-donation campaign that produced the best month of Biden’s 2024 fundraising in December. Nearly a million supporters donated an average of close to $42 each during that month.
Biden’s fundraising in the last three months of 2023 was more than a $25 million increase over the third quarter, which saw him raise $71 million. It was also more than Barack Obama raised in the fourth quarter of 2011, leading into his successful reelection campaign in 2012. President Obama raised $66 million over those three months, meaning Biden has outperformed him by a close to 50% increase.
The fourth quarter didn’t set a record, however. In the fourth quarter of 2019, then-President Donald Trump raised $154 million for his unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2020.
Still, Biden is in an excellent position heading into the election year. The campaign has raised a total of $235 million since it launched, and Biden was able to set a record with cash on hand heading into the year.
Liquidity Is Good
While the Republicans have been forced to spend money almost as fast as they raise it, Biden has been able to save money for the general election. Heading into 2024, the Biden campaign reported it had $117 million of available cash (including Super PAC money).
That’s a record big-nest egg for a Democratic candidate heading into an election year. The previous record holder, President Obama, had $95.3 million heading into 2012.
WATCH: Late Night host Seth Meyers mocks Biden campaign’s new merchandise: “Democrats, please suck less” pic.twitter.com/ZLdd4FBLhG
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) January 26, 2024
It’s also the third straight quarter where President Biden has been able to increase the amount of cash on hand for the campaign. At the end of Quarter Two, in June 2023, the campaign had $77 million available. That jumped to $91 million at the end of the third quarter, in September, and now an increase of $26 million at year’s end. It also means that Biden has been able to save nearly half of all fundraising money collected since the start of the campaign.
| Candidate | BetOnline | Bovada |
|---|---|---|
| Joe Biden | -2000 | -1000 |
| Michelle Obama | +1300 | |
| Gavin Newsom | +2500 | |
| Kamala Harris | +4000 | |
| Dean Phillips | +15000 | |
| Any Other Candidate | +700 |
Better Financial Position
Biden’s cash advantage is magnified by the positioning of the likely Republican nominee. Many larger Republican donors, including the Koch Foundation, have backed challenger Nikki Haley, even though it is looking more and more likely that she will lose the nomination to Trump.
Trump has tried to strong-arm donors into abandoning Haley, but that strategy has backfired thus far. While Trump has seen the GOP donations split between him and Haley, he’s also been plagued by an additional expense that Biden doesn’t face.
Trump has been using a large portion of the money he’s raised—more than $40 million by some estimates—to help pay the legal fees for the variety of lawsuits and 41 criminal indictments he faces in various cases around the country.
That all adds up to less money available to use in the upcoming battle with Biden for the presidency.
As we said earlier, it’s good to be the president.
