Biden campaign reports $97M in Q4 of 2023, touts ‘historic’ $117M cash-on-hand on day of Iowa caucuses

The Biden campaign raised more than $97 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, and has $117 million cash-on-hand — the ‘highest total of any Democratic candidate in history’ at this point in a presidential election cycle.

The campaign announced Monday that President Biden’s re-election campaign is entering the 2024 presidential election year with ‘historic resources,’ and touted the campaign’s grassroots efforts.

‘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 campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said. ‘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 added: ‘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 campaign out-raised its Q3 numbers. In October, the campaign announced it raised approximately $71 million in the third quarter of 2023. 

The campaign said it has successfully grown its cash on hand for the last three quarters – starting at $77 million in Q2, to $91 million in Q3, and now $117 million at the end of Q4.

‘While most of the Republicans have not yet announced their fundraising numbers, we fully expect to lap them…Several times.’ Biden Senior Advisor for Communications TJ Ducklo said.

The Biden campaign, in December, had its strongest grassroots fundraising month, breaking its previous record from November. The campaign said nearly 1 million supporters have made more than 2.3 million contributions.

The campaign reported that 97% of its donations in Q4 were under $200, with the campaign seeing an average grassroots contribution of $41.88.

Reflecting on its fundraising history, the campaign said its ‘Cup of Joe’ contest to meet with Biden and Vice President Harris was the campaign’s ‘most successful contest to date, raising over $3 million.’

The campaign has also held 110 fundraisers since President Biden announced his re-election campaign —including 39 in the last quarter of 2023.

In December, Biden raised more than $15 million during a fundraising blitz. 

First, the president attended a fundraising event in Boston, Massachusetts, which featured a concert by singer-songwriter James Taylor. Front-row tickets sold for $7,500 per seat.

Then, he traveled to Los Angeles for a Hollywood fundraiser hosted by Steven Spielberg, Shona Rhimes, CEO of Paramount Pictures Jim Gianopulos, actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, and others. Top tickets for that event were said to be $930,000 each. 

But the campaign said the numbers tell a story — and reflect efforts across not just the Biden re-election campaign, but the Democratic National Committee and its joint-fundraising committees.

The campaign said one-third of its donors are new donors since the 2020 campaign.

‘As Republicans burn through millions of dollars in their race to out-MAGA each other, grassroots supporters across the country are pitching in to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and stop MAGA extremism in its tracks,’ DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said. ‘This historic haul—powered by grassroots donors—makes it clear that voters understand the stakes of this election and they’re ready to stand up and fight for our democracy and freedoms.’

Harrison said the Biden campaign and the DNC are working ‘as one team with a single mission.’

That mission is ‘to build a winning campaign that has the resources to send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House, and elect Democrats up and down the ballot.’ 

The campaign announced the numbers on the day of the Iowa caucuses — the first-in-the-nation presidential primary contests. With Joe Biden running unopposed in the Democratic primary, all eyes are on Republicans.

Voters, for the first time, will choose between former President Trump, who is leading the GOP field by a massive margin; former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.