According to a campaign official, President Joe Biden‘s team will hold a sizable fundraiser in Los Angeles the following month, featuring former President Barack Obama as well as Hollywood A-listers George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
The impressive roster of celebrities is anticipated to bolster Biden’s fundraising endeavors during a period when Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are striving to bridge the financial disparity now that the former president has secured the delegates required to obtain the nomination, enabling him to leverage all of the GOP‘s resources.
As previously disclosed with NBC News, the high-profile Biden event, scheduled for mid-June, will include a competition with Clooney and Roberts that will be promoted on the campaign’s social media channels to involve grassroots contributors, prominent celebrities, and surrogates. In an effort to increase donations, the two Academy Award winners will also provide their names to campaign emails and text messages.
The campaign intends to market the Los Angeles fundraiser in a manner reminiscent of the lavish event that Biden hosted in late March in New York City alongside Obama and former President Bill Clinton, which raised $26 million. According to Biden’s campaign aides, that sum set a record for Democratic event fundraising.
According to a person familiar with the plans who first shared them with NBC News, the president is also anticipated to host a fundraiser on the East Coast early this summer with Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Biden campaign has had financial advantages over Trump for months, which have allowed it to hire employees and expand its infrastructure in key states.
“We don’t think he won’t try to close the difference,” a Biden campaign advisor stated. “But the time we’ve had with all this money to do what we’ve done is something he can never get back.”
According to a source with knowledge of the total sum who initially provided information to NBC News, Biden recently wrapped up a fundraising tour around the West Coast that took him through Northern California and the Seattle area. He raised $10 million in just two days.
The campaign is preparing for new campaign finance filings, which could for the first time reveal Trump’s campaign eating into what had been Biden’s largest lead in the 2024 contest. News of yet another major fundraiser arrives at this time.
According to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings, the Biden campaign raised $43.8 million in March, almost tripling the amount raised by the Trump campaign during that same time. As a result, the Biden campaign ended the month with $85.5 million in cash on hand. Taking into account the Democratic National Committee, the Biden campaign’s financial situation is nearly twice as large as that of Trump and the RNC ($131 million versus $67 million).
The trio of presidents’ benefit at Radio City Music Hall gave Team Biden a big boost. However, Trump swiftly retaliated in early April by having his own lavish affair in Palm Beach, Florida. According to his campaign, $50.5 million was raised at the event; some of that amount will probably show up in the upcoming FEC filing.
This month, the Republican National Committee announced that it anticipates raising a total of $76 million in April with the Trump campaign.
Nearer the May 20 deadline, the Biden campaign anticipates releasing its April fundraising totals. Although a campaign official stated that Biden’s fundraising pace is still strong, it is expected that Trump’s fundraising will pick up now that the Republican nomination battle is over.
Speaking with reporters last week, Michael Tyler, the director of Biden’s campaign communications, stated that the president’s team has long been using its financial advantage to expand a sizable reelection effort locally and strengthen its message across the airwaves in battleground states, regardless of Trump’s April polling totals.
Tyler declared, “I’ll take that over whatever dollar amount Trump and his team really wind up filing in their report.”
Little-dollar donations to Biden have frequently increased significantly in the run-up to big occasions, such as Trump’s wins in this year’s Iowa and New Hampshire primaries and the State of the Union speech in March. However, Trump’s court cases took center stage in April while Biden traveled to several battleground states to address issues including student debt, abortion rights, and the economy.
In April, Biden only went to two upscale fundraisers: one in Chicago and one in the New York region. The number of events featuring not only Biden but other surrogates has “dried up,” according to a New York-based Biden campaign donor who is on the National Finance Committee. The donor claimed this was because they felt tapped out following the event with Obama and Clinton. But this summer, the donor anticipates that the pace will pick back up.
Obama has played a significant role in helping Biden raise money. A series of digital advertisements featuring Obama and Biden were released by the campaign in April, urging viewers to make small donations. Small-dollar solicitations from Obama have contributed to the campaign’s over $17 million in revenue in the year since Biden launched his reelection campaign, according to the campaign.
According to two people familiar with the situation, the Biden and Obama teams are still debating the extent of the former president’s involvement, including a recent face-to-face meeting between Obama and Biden senior adviser Mike Donilon.
According to an Obama official, Obama is also anticipated to participate in fundraisers in the upcoming months for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, as well as the Senate and House campaign committees for Democrats.