Joe Biden And The DNC Raised $80 Million In May

President Donald Trump has yet to announce his fundraising for the month.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee raised a combined $80.8 million in May, as larger donations and a more robust online fundraising operation help the candidate keep pace with President Donald Trump’s fundraising juggernaut.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, did not reveal how much cash his campaign or the DNC has on hand.

Trump and the Republican National Committee have yet to announce their May fundraising numbers. The two campaigns essentially tied in April ― Trump raised $61.7 million, while Biden raised just over $60 million.

“I’m in awe of this sum of money,” Biden wrote in an email to supporters. “Just a few months ago, people were ready to write this campaign off. Now, we are making huge dents in Donald Trump’s warchest. Every single dollar is going to make sure he is only a one-term president.”

Biden struggled with fundraising at times during the primary, with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) both routinely outraising him despite bypassing traditional high-dollar fundraisers.

The Biden campaign has invested heavily in building out its email list ― it has spent more than $8 million on Facebook in the last 30 days, with especially robust investment since the death of George Floyd and the subsequent protests. The effort seems to be paying off: More than half of the campaign’s donors in May were new, and the number of online donors to the campaign has tripled since February.

The campaign says its average online donation in May was $30, though it’s unclear how the campaign is defining an online donation. Biden has held Zoom fundraisers with tickets costing tens of thousands of dollars since the coronavirus pandemic has put an end to most gatherings.

May was the first month where Biden was able to take full advantage of a joint fundraising committee with the DNC and state Democratic parties. A single donor is able to give up to $620,000 to a candidate under the arrangement, which Trump has taken advantage of for years.

Biden’s haul outpaced that of both President Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for the same time frame. Obama and the DNC raised $59.1 million in May 2012; Clinton raised $38 million four years ago.

Paul Blumenthal contributed reporting.

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