Biden's Fundraising Catches Up With Trump's

Joe Biden's campaign raised more than $33 million in Q4 of 2023, bringing the president's fundraising in the 2024 election cycle to the same level as that of Donald Trump - his likely opponent in the race for the presidency. Trump's campaign only brought in slightly more that $19 million in 2023's final quarter, less than the $24.5 million the Republican's campaign made in Q3 of that year. Trump has also spent more money, dispensing around $46.5 million since his campaign started in Q4 of 2022. Biden, whose presidential campaign started later - in Q2 of 2023 - only began major spending efforts then and hence has so far dispensed only around $34 million. This is according to new and updated filings with the Federal Election Commission.

Democratic incumbent Biden had been slightly ahead of Trump in Q2 and Q3, outraising the former president $19.9 million to $17.7 million and $24.8 to $24.5 million, respectively. Due to getting its earlier start, the Trump campaign had raised more money than Biden previous to the latest filing, but that has now changed. Biden shifted his campaign into gear at the traditional time for presidential candidates to enter the 2024 race, which was between Q1 and Q2 of 2023. In Q4 of 2022 and Q1 of 2023, the Biden campaign had almost no money coming in, even though it had around $2 million on hand on Oct. 1, 2022 after a slightly more busy raising (and spending) period since the beginning of 2021 during which it raised around $12 million and spent around $10 million. Considering all money that has come in to Biden's campaign committee since he took office on Jan. 7, 2021, the total comes to $89.8 million - ahead of the $79.6 million Trump achieved since Q4 2022 by starting his full-flung campaign almost half a year early.

Campaign committees are not the only vehicles which candidates for presidents use to raise money. While a candidate's official campaign, with more transparency rules and contribution limits, is a good gauge of a candidate's broad appeal to the public, other fundraising tools are Leadership PACs - PACs closely associated with a candidate but with fewer rules - and Joint Fundraising Committees, which can collect one big check from a donor and then split them up among participating candidates in order to make sticking to contribution limits easier. In the case of Donald Trump, his leadership PAC Save America as well as super PAC Make America Great Again have become a source of funds for the former president's legal expenses. In 2023, $50 million were used this way, according to CNN - $29 million in the last six months of the year.