Biden hauls in nearly $50M last month, his best monthly fundraising to date

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Former Vice President Joe Biden announced on Monday night that he brought in $46.7 million in March, the most the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s raised in a single month since launching his campaign nearly one year ago.

Biden, who struggled to bring in cash for much of his campaign, has seen his fundraising spike the past couple of months. He raised just $8.9 million in January, but doubled his haul to $18 million in February. Thanks to a series of sweeping primary victories by Biden stating in South Carolina on Feb. 29 and extending into mid-March, all but one of his remaining Democratic rivals dropped out of the race and much of the party coalesced around the former vice president as he became the all-but-certain presumptive nominee. And he more than doubled his February fundraising figures.

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In an email to supporters announcing the campaign cash haul, Biden wrote that “it was your support which has made us the presumptive nominee of our party. That is something no one was predicting just a little over a month ago. Many of the so-called experts had declared our campaign over. Not you. You and so many others lifted us up on your shoulders, generated record levels of turnout, and propelled us in state after state to a historic comeback victory.”

Spotlighting his grassroots appeal, Biden said that 70 percent of his March fundraising came from on-line donors, with an average on-line contribution of $40.

Biden also emphasized that he’s “especially proud to say that every one of our primary opponents has endorsed our campaign. We are leading a unified Democratic party to take on Donald Trump.”

The former vice president’s haul is $16 million less than the combined figure of $63 million brought in last month by the Trump re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC). The president’s re-election team also announced last week that they and the RNC had a massive $240 million cash on hand as of the end of March.

While Biden’s haul last month was impressive, he still faces a massive fundraising deficit. Joint fundraising with the Democratic National Committee is expected to begin shortly. But raising campaign cash during an economy shattered by the coronavirus pandemic may prove difficult.

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Biden said on March 15 that he had already raised $33 million in the first half of March. But that was before the outbreak had fully grounded the country’s economy. Biden brought in less than $14 million in the second half of the month, as the economy began to crater. With in-person fundraisers an impossibility due to social distancing rules, the former vice president’s now holding virtual fundraisers.

In his email to supporters, Biden lowered expectations for April.

“I know that April may not match March in fundraising, and that’s okay by me. The world has changed a great deal. It’s unrecognizable at times. Your family and your community need your generosity and strength now more than ever,” Biden said.

But late last week, Biden said he raised $5 million in the two days after he was endorsed by his old boss former President Barack Obama and by two key rivals – Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who dropped out of the race in early March but remained neutral – and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – who suspended his bid a week earlier.

“We're raising more money than we ever raised because they're going out to their people and saying, ‘It's time to give your five bucks, it's time to help.’ They're going into their lists as well,” Biden said last Thursday at a virtual fundraiser.