Campaign

Biden campaign raises $42 million in January

President Joe Biden arrives at the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, after returning from Rehoboth Beach, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The Biden campaign brought in more than $42 million in the month of January, giving itself roughly $130 million in cash on hand with roughly nine months to go until Election Day.

Campaign officials touted the fundraising efforts as a testament to President Biden’s grassroots support, saying January was the third consecutive month in which the campaign set a new record for its grassroots program.

“While Team Biden-Harris continues to build on its fundraising machine, Republicans are divided – either spending money fighting Donald Trump, or spending money in support of Donald Trump’s extreme and losing agenda,” campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Either way, judging from their weak fundraising, they’re already paying the political price. In an election that will determine the fate of our democracy and our freedoms, President Biden’s campaign is using its resources to build a winning operation that will meet voters where they are about the stakes of this election.”

The total haul represents fundraising across the Biden campaign, Democratic National Committee (DNC) and joint fundraising committees between the two.

The Biden campaign received a boost in part as the Republican primary kicked into gear. Officials said they raised $1 million each day in the three days after the Iowa caucuses, which former President Trump won in a landslide.

The campaign said it had raised nearly $278 million since Biden officially launched his reelection bid last April. The operation’s $130 million cash on hand is the most ever for a Democratic candidate, the campaign said.

Its cash on hand far outpaces the Trump campaign, which reported raising $19 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, with $33 million in cash on hand at the end of the year. 

Trump is on track to become the GOP nominee, having won the first three primary contests and leading in the polls in those still to come. But he has still had to focus his time and resources on defeating his lone remaining rival, Nikki Haley.

Additionally, Trump is facing a mountain of legal fees that will continue to grow as he deals with 91 felony charges across four separate investigations.

A New York judge last week ordered the former president to pay a nearly $355 million penalty, plus interest, after finding he falsely altered his net worth on key financial statements to receive tax and insurance benefits.

Trump also owes writer E. Jean Carroll more than $83 million after a New York City jury last month found he defamed her in 2019, when he denied the longtime advice columnist’s accusation that he sexually assaulted her decades earlier.