US President Biden arrives on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, to depart for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, December 20, 2023.
Mandel Gunn | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden’s $140 million campaign fund is tied to a team of loyal advisers and what some party strategists call a “dream team” to defeat former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee. It is powered by a group of fund raisers.
The recent fundraising boom can be traced primarily to five people: media executive and Biden campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, former State Department official Rufus Giffords, and campaign finance director. Michael Pratt, Jen O’Malley Dillon, a longtime Biden adviser and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the president’s 2024 campaign manager.
“They’ve kind of assembled a dream team in fundraising,” said Jim Messina, former President Barack Obama’s campaign manager for his successful 2012 re-election campaign.
Katzenberg is talking to donors to Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and trying to recruit them to support Biden. “We’re actively courting them,” he told CNBC in a recent interview.
“I’ve only done this with a handful of super-major donors, but I can tell you it’s been well received. No one has said, ‘Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you.'” Katzenberg he said.
Haley insists she will remain in the race despite polls showing she is expected to lose to Trump in the Republican primary in her home state of South Carolina on Saturday.
But Katzenberg noted that Haley has support in states such as New Hampshire. she won with 43% He said this suggests that some in the Republican Party are ready to move away from Trump.
CNBC spoke to more than half a dozen Biden advisers, party fundraisers and Democratic strategists for this story, several of whom granted anonymity to share personal conversations. . They explore how key figures from a series of groups, including Biden’s campaign committee, community fundraising committee, his lead outside political action committee, and the Democratic National Committee, are working to help the president win re-election. He explained how he raised $40 million.
Their efforts have given Mr. Biden a significant advantage in the funding race against Mr. Trump. Mr. Biden’s political fundraising efforts are paying for his campaign and attorneys’ fees in numerous civil and criminal cases.
The Trump campaign and its political allies started the year with a combined $65 million in cash, according to Federal Election Commission records.This is roughly after paying $50 million In 2023, he will become the former president’s lawyer.
“President Trump’s campaign is supported by small donors from all backgrounds across the country,” Caroline Leavitt, national spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said in a statement to CNBC. “We are more confident than ever that he will take back the White House in November.”
fancy party
The Biden team’s success in ramping up Biden’s fundraising efforts has become even more evident over the past year, as a series of one-off private events each raised millions of dollars.
Already this week, Biden’s West Coast fundraising efforts have raised up to $10 million across four different events for the Biden Victory Fund, according to a person with direct knowledge of the total. The Biden Victory Fund raises money for the Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee and various state political parties.
According to the Biden campaign, three of the events have previously been hosted by entertainment executive Haim Saban, venture capitalist John Doerr and businessman Gordon Getty.lawyer robert kleinDaniel Gutman Klein and Steve Westley are co-hosting Thursday’s event in Los Altos Hills, California, according to the invitation.
In December, Biden attended an event in Los Angeles. House Designed by former US Ambassador to Spain James Kostos and interior designer Michael Smith. The guest list included movie moguls Steven Spielberg and Peter Chernin, and entertainment included a performance by musician Lenny Kravitz, according to invitations and people with direct knowledge of the event.
That night ultimately raised about $8.5 million for the Biden Victory Fund, the official explained.
Building on that success, Mr. Platt and a group of Biden advisers came up with the idea of holding a major fundraiser featuring the former president in New York in March. Obama and Bill ClintonThese people explained to me.
U.S. President Barack Obama (left) and Vice President Joe Biden (center) chat before the memorial service for Sen. Robert Byrd begins at the West Virginia State Capitol on July 2, 2010 in Charleston, West Virginia. , former President Bill Clinton.
Mandel Gunn | AFP | Getty Images
personal approach
One-on-one support from influential figures like Katzenberg and Giffords also helped ease the turbulent feelings of former Biden donors. “I’m pissed.” For the newly elected president and his team not paying attention to them after the 2020 election.
Those donors are now returning to help, according to people familiar with the matter. One of Biden’s fundraisers said donors are returning to the team after Biden was invited to various private events. White House. The fundraiser praised Gifford for, among other things, improving donor outreach.
But it’s not just Biden’s appeal that is drawing some of these donors back to the Biden campaign. Donald Trump’s almost inevitable Republican nomination is at play here as well.
“We have no choice,” said a once-frustrated Wall Street fundraiser for Biden. He has ties to Gifford and Katzenberg and is backing the president again. “We can’t let Trump win.”