President Joe Biden is boasting a cash advantage over former President Donald Trump, Federal Election Commission filings released this week show, as the two gear up for a likely rematch in November.
The filings for the first month of the election year also come as Biden embarks on a three-state fundraising swing through California, looking to raise big bucks from donors in the blue bastion.
Campaign finance reports for January 2024 showed Trump’s principal campaign committee ended the month with just less than $30.5 million in the bank as Biden’s main committee, on the other hand, rounded out January with $56 million in cash reserves.
Trump’s cash on-hand figure for January marked a decrease from the $33 million he had in the bank to start the new year, and it stands in contrast with the $10 million Biden added to his cash chest over the month.
According to filings, Trump recorded raising $8.8 million in the first month of the election year while Biden’s principal campaign committee brought in $15 million. Spending was also lopsided with the former president using more than $11.4 million in January to Biden’s $5.7 million.
The filings for January include just the figures for Trump and Biden’s main campaign committees. But the incumbent president’s campaign on Wednesday touted its $130 million war chest among all of Biden’s fundraising entities, which includes his other joint fundraising committees and the the Democratic National Committee.
Among all of those entities, the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign said, Biden notched $42 million toward his reelection effort in January.
“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,” Biden's campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement about January’s numbers. “Either way, judging from their weak fundraising, they’re already paying the political price.”
The announcement comes as the incumbent president seeking another four years in the White House is out west looking to raise more, attending multiple donor receptions this week in the blue enclave of California – a key fundraising state for Biden.
Thus far, the Federal Election Commission’s presidential candidate map puts his total brought in from California at more than $13 million, more than any other state. FEC data shows Trump has raked in more than $8.8 million from donors in the state.
Jessica Millan Patterson, the chairwoman of the California GOP, pointed to a Berkeley Institute of Governmental of Studies poll in November showing a majority of voters in what she called “blue, blue California” disapprove of Biden’s job performance.
“I think you can imagine if he’s doing that poorly here in California, how poorly he is doing in those swing states,” Patterson charged.
Patterson emphasized some positive signs for Republicans in the Democratic stronghold, noting in the secretary of state’s most recent election report, the GOP added more than 46,000 registered voters between October and January. Democrats lost about 30,000 voters in those three months, despite still holding a significant registration edge overall.