With all eyes on Iowa as the Republican presidential candidates look to secure a win in the first-in-the-nation caucuses, President Joe Biden's reelection campaign on Monday announced that it ended 2023 with a $97 million fundraising haul.

They also reported $117 million cash on hand, which the campaign said is the most by any Democratic candidate in history.

What You Need To Know

  • President Joe Biden's reelection campaign announced a $97 million fundraising haul in the final months of 2023

  • They also reported $117 million cash on hand, which the Biden-Harris campaign said is the most by any Democratic candidate in history

  • The campaign announced the totals on Monday as Republican candidates are focused on the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses; the Biden campaign compared its $117 million in cash on hand to the $100 million total Republican ad spend in Iowa

  • While his GOP rivals are focused on Iowa on Monday, President Biden will volunteer at a Philadelphia hunger relief organization for the third year in a row in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service, according to the White House

"This historic haul—proudly powered by strong and growing grassroots enthusiasm—sends a clear message: the Team Biden-Harris coalition knows the stakes of this election and is ready to win this November," Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

"Across our coalition, we are seeing early, sustained support that is helping us scale our growing operation across the country and take our message to the communities that will determine this election," she continued. "Our democracy and hard-fought basic rights and freedoms are on the line in 2024, and these numbers prove that the American people know the stakes and are taking action early to help defeat the extreme MAGA Republican agenda again."

The president has made defending democracy a centerpiece of his reelection bid. His first campaign speech of 2024, on the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Biden warned of dire consequences for American democracy if former President Donald Trump were to retake the White House, while his second speech, at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the site of a racially motivated mass shooting in 2015, the president condemned the "poison" of white supremacy.

The campaign said that December was its strongest grassroots fundraising month, breaking a record set one month prior -- without providing a month-to-month breakdown of figures. They also noted that 97% of their donations in the fourth quarter of 2023 were under $200, with the average grassroots contribution being $41.88. More than 520,000 donors made 926,000-plus contributions in the quarter, the campaign said.

All told, since Biden's campaign launched, nearly 1 million supporters have made more than 2.3 million contributions. Those totals include donations to Biden’s political operation and to a network of joint fundraising arrangements with the national and state Democratic parties.

The Biden campaign also pointed to its growing cash reserves -- from $77 million in Q2 to $91 million in Q3 to more than $117 million in Q4 -- comparing the figure to the total Republican ad spend in Iowa ($100M) and cash-on-hand for Biden's GOP rivals -- the closest, former President Donald Trump's campaign, had $38 million on hand in Q3.

“While most of the Republicans have not yet announced their fundraising numbers, we fully expect to lap them,” Biden-Harris Senior Advisor for Communications TJ Ducklo said in a statement. “Several times.” 

The campaign said the president has held 110 fundraisers since launching, including 39 in last year's fourth quarter alone. That included a string of fundraisers before the Christmas holidays that took him to Boston for a trio of events, one of which featured singer-songwriter James Taylor, and three days in California for gatherings with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand.

Biden's latest haul outpaced that of President Barack Obama, who with the DNC raised an un-inflation adjusted $68 million in the final three months of 2011, ahead of his successful reelection the following year. Trump’s campaign announced raising $46 million in the last quarter of 2019 and had $102.7 million on hand ahead of a 2020 race it eventually lost to Biden — though its combined war chest with the Republican National Committee at the time was far more formidable.

While his GOP rivals are focused on Iowa on Monday, President Biden, who spent the weekend at Camp David, will volunteer at a Philadelphia hunger relief organization for the third year in a row in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service, according to the White House.

Biden's visit to the City of Brotherly Love will be his second visit to his birth state in in a week; he traveled to Allentown, Pa., to visit small businesses, making the case that his economic policies have caused a small business boom and spurred economic growth. It was a change from the set speeches he usually gives, meant to highlight ways his economic plans have ensured strong employment — even while triggering inflation that worries voters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.