Biden campaign, Democratic National Committee set joint fundraising agreement

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) will formally set a joint fundraising agreement on Friday, giving the presumptive Democratic nominee more sway over the committee’s fundraising functions. 

The New York Times first reported that the new deal will permit Biden to raise $360,600 from individual donors. Of those funds, $5,600 raised will go to the Biden campaign and the rest will be earmarked for the DNC. 

The move is meant to help the Biden campaign and the DNC catch up with the fundraising agreement put in place by President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC). Trump and the RNC had a combined $244 million at the beginning of April, while Biden and the DNC had a combined $57 million. 

As part of the agreement, the Biden campaign was also granted its request to have DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill serve as the committee’s chief executive officer. 

“Mary Beth’s experience running presidential campaigns and managing the kind of complex operation it takes to win a general election will be invaluable, and I am thrilled to have her as a partner in this fight,” Biden’s campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, told the Times. 

Biden’s former campaign manager Greg Schultz, who was replaced by O’Malley Dillon earlier this year, will serve as a go-between for the campaign and the DNC.

Fundraising for Biden and Trump appears to have been impacted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has forced campaigns to go completely digital. 

Biden raised $46.7 million in March, marking his best monthly haul to date, but fell just short of the roughly $47.6 million raised by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in February.

That means that, in the second half of March, Biden raked in about $13.7 million, less than half of what he raised in the first part of the month.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign and the RNC raised a combined $63 million in March that fell about $23 million short of the roughly $86 million they raised in February.