President Biden has a significant cash edge over his rival former President Trump, but some Democrats say they doubt it will make much of a difference in a general election race between two candidates who are both well known to voters.
“I’m glad we have more money than Trump, but I think it doesn’t matter almost at all,” said one longtime Democratic bundler.
For starters, the bundler noted, on the Republican side, Trump is a master marketer and good at luring earned media “so he doesn’t have to spend a nickel.”
“And on the Biden side, they’re terrible at marketing. They’re inept,” the bundler said. “It’s a fool’s errand.”
“He’s been an amazing president,” the bundler added of Biden. “He’s had enormous success. But they haven’t found a way to telegraph that, and you can raise and spend all the money in the world, but it won’t help.”
The Biden campaign this week announced it had raised $53 million in February, and that it had a total of $155 million in cash on hand. The total represents one of the largest campaign war chests in recent history, though it still falls behind Trump’s fundraising efforts to this point in the 2020 race, when the Republican was running as an incumbent.
The announcement was welcome news to Democrats, who are increasingly anxious about Biden’s chances in the presidential race against Trump, especially after the former president’s dominant performance in the GOP primaries.
Biden’s approval rating has been underwater, and he has trailed the former president in recent polls, including some conducted in key swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Democrats have worried in recent months about Biden’s age — he will turn 82 years old later this year — and his ability not only to win what is expected to be an ugly and grueling campaign but to govern through a second term if he does prevail.
But the robust fundraising numbers have given a boost to the Biden campaign and have provided a good metric to contrast with the Trump campaign, which has spent cash on the Republican primary and also on Trump’s ever-growing legal bills.
Trump on Tuesday was publicly complaining about a New York judge’s ruling against him in a business fraud case, arguing he would have to hold a “fire sale” of his properties in order to pay a $464 million bond by next week as he appeals the case.
Still, money isn’t everything in a political campaign, and observers worried Biden’s cash edge won’t be enough were looking back to the 2016 presidential race won by Trump in a huge upset.
In that battle, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton outraised Trump by a healthy margin.
By the end of the campaign, Clinton had pulled in more than $580 million while Trump raised $340 million. And in the final weeks of the campaign, Trump spent much less — roughly $94 million — compared with Clinton’s final spending sprint of more than $131 million, according to campaign filing reports.
But in the end, it was irrelevant.
“It didn’t matter then and it won’t matter in this race,” said Shermichael Singleton, a Republican strategist who does not support Trump. “If you look at 2016, he was outraised and he still won, and the campaign didn’t have the experience level that it has now.”
“He’s going to be fine,” Singleton added of Trump. “He’s still going to draw big numbers, and earned media is going to make up for a lot of it because of the intrigue and interest in his court trials.”
Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist who served as an aide on Clinton’s 2016 campaign, agreed, saying voters not only know the candidates, but they’re aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
“It’s fair to say the money edge is different in an environment where you have 100 percent name ID for both candidates,” Payne said. “It’s not that you’re going to inform the public any more about Joe Biden or Donald Trump.”
But he said having a heavy war chest will still help in terms of building a strong field operation and ground game.
Payne also said the mountain of campaign cash could help Biden turn on a dime when he needs to react fast to a new issue.
“What you’re more likely to do is shine a light on something that happens more quickly if you have a financial edge,” he said.
Democrats seem likely to build on Biden’s cash advantage in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, the president is traveling to Dallas, Texas, for a fundraiser, followed by another one in Houston on Thursday. Next week, he’ll travel to North Carolina — a state the campaign says they can flip to their side — to attend a fundraising event alongside Vice President Harris.
And later this month, he’ll appear alongside former Presidents Obama and Clinton at a first-of-its-kind fundraiser in New York. The event, set to take place at Radio City Music Hall, is expected to rake in at least $10 million and draw several thousand people.
While there are some Democrats who have concluded the cash haul won’t make much of a difference, others argue that every dollar helps — particularly in the half a dozen states that matter.
“The Biden-Harris fundraising advantage will make a big difference because the margin of winning in the key battleground states is in the tens of thousands of votes,” said Robert Wolf, the former chairman of UBS Americas and a prominent Democratic donor. “I’d rather be on our side where we have more money to invest in local [events], advertising and grassroots efforts.
“The Biden campaign is outperforming on the fundraising front and we need to keep up the momentum,” Wolf added.
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