Biden campaign raises $30 million at celebrity fundraiser as Trump courts Black voters in Detroit
The 'Outnumbered' panel discussed the contrast between Trump and Biden's campaigning as the current president struggles to garner support among Black voters.
President Biden's 2024 re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised a combined $85 million in May, which is their second-best month of fundraising this election cycle.
But the money raised by Biden and the DNC is far short of the staggering haul raised by former President Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee last month.
In announcing their May fundraising figures on Thursday evening, the Biden campaign also highlighted that they had a massive $212 million cash-on-hand as of the end of May.
"Our strong and consistent fundraising program grew by millions of people in May, a clear sign of strong and growing enthusiasm for the President and Vice President every single month," Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.
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President Biden's re-election campaign scolded MSNBC and CNN on Wednesday for ignoring a "Black Voters for Biden-Harris" rally in Philadelphia. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Biden's announcement came on the final day the presidential campaigns had to file their May fundraising figures with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
But the Trump campaign didn't wait for the deadline to tout its May fundraising haul.
The former president's campaign announced two and a half weeks ago that they and the RNC, fueled in part by the former president's guilty verdicts in his criminal trial, combined hauled in a stunning $141 million in fundraising in May.
That was up from the $76 million they raised in April when they topped President Biden and the Democratic National Committee for the first time in their 2024 election rematch.
Former President Trump arrives at Trump Tower on May 30, 2024, in New York City after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)
Spotlighting their grassroots appeal, the Trump campaign said that the average dollar donation was $70.27 with 25% of the donors in May being first time contributors to the former president's 2024 run.
The Trump cash announcement came in the wake of what his campaign showcased as "record-shattering" fundraising immediately after he was found guilty of all 34 felony counts in the first trial of a former or current president in the nation's history.
The former president's campaign highlighted that in the first 24 hours following Thursday evening's verdict, they and the RNC hauled in nearly $53 million in fundraising, which counted towards May's total.
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The Biden campaign also raised funds off of the Trump verdict, and a source familiar told Fox News that "the 24 hours after the verdict were one of the best fundraising 24 hours of the Biden campaign since launch."
Biden's May haul came without any major fundraising events headlined by the president. The Biden campaign says that a majority of its May fundraising came from grassroots donors.
The campaign has been using its funds to build up what appears to be a very formidable ground operation in the key battleground states and announced hours earlier on Thursday that they had hired their 1,000 staffer. The Biden campaign enjoys a large organizational advantage over team Trump when it comes to grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote ground game efforts.
President Biden and former President Trump (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson and Evan Vucci)
"The money we continue to raise matters, and it’s helping the campaign build out an operation that invests in reaching and winning the voters who will decide this election," Chavez Rodriguez highlighted.
Biden's campaign appears to enjoy a large cash-on-hand advantage over Trump, whose campaign didn't report their cash-on-hand amount in announcing their May fundraising. The campaigns are not legally required to report those figures until the end of July, following the close of the second quarter of fundraising.
Biden enjoyed a $146 million to $88 million cash-on-hand advantage over Trump at the end of March, following the close of the first fundraising quarter of the year.
Trump has been aiming to close his fundraising gap with Biden, who had regularly been outpacing Trump in monthly fundraising.
Former President Donald Trump walks to the podium at a campaign event Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in Racine, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
Trump's April haul was boosted by a record-setting $50.5 million that the former president's campaign raked in at a single event early in the month with top dollar GOP donors that was hosted at the Palm Beach, Florida home of billionaire investor John Paulson.
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Both candidates have held top dollar fundraising events so far in June.
The president set a new Democratic Party fundraising record – according to his campaign – as he hauled in over $30 million at a star-studded fundraiser on Saturday in Los Angeles with former President Obama, Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and late night TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
President Biden laughs with former President Obama onstage during a campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 15, 2024. (Getty Images)
And he brought in $8.1 million at a fundraiser at the Northern Virginia home of former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, where he was also joined by former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and former Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was the Democrats' 2016 standard-bearer.
Meanwhile, Trump's team touted that they hauled in roughly $27.5 million during a fundraising swing by the former president in California and Nevada a week ago.
Fundraising, along with public opinion polling, is a key metric used to measure the strength of a candidate and their campaign. Money raised can be used to build up grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote operations, staffing, travel and ads, among other things.
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