Fundraising across Joe Biden’s political operation dropped in April, a potentially worrying sign for the incumbent president who is trailing in the polls and confronting enthusiasm challenges among his base supporters.
And while former President Donald Trump’s side picked up steam after taking over the Republican National Committee, it continued to spend heavily on legal bills while only slightly building up campaign operations last month, according to new campaign finance reports filed late Monday.
Biden announced $51 million raised across his campaign, joint fundraising committees and the Democratic National Committee — down notably from a $90 million March haul that was buoyed by a flurry of post-State of the Union events, including a glitzy Radio City Music Hall fundraiser. His operation still had $192 million cash on hand, his campaign said, a similar total to the previous month. That included $84 million in his campaign account, compared with $49 million in the Trump campaign’s account.
“April’s haul reflects strong, consistent grassroots enthusiasm,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez said in a statement. “Trump’s operation continues to burn through cash and lag behind our growing and aggressive campaign, with no ground game and no demonstrable interest in talking to the voters they need to win.”
Biden’s campaign spending dropped to $25 million in April, down slightly from March. Biden’s campaign spent less on advertising, though its payroll grew to nearly $3 million, with more than 250 staffers paid directly by the campaign in April — roughly 4 times as many as Trump’s campaign in the same period.
Presidential campaigns are required to file monthly reports with the Federal Election Commission, although joint fundraising committees on which the campaigns rely to raise much of their money don’t have to report until July.
Trump’s campaign told donors earlier this month that his entire operation, including the RNC, had raised $76 million in April, which can’t be verified until those July reports. His campaign touted the haul in comparison to Biden and the DNC in a Monday night statement.
“President Trump and the RNC significantly outraised Biden and the Democrats in the month of April, thanks to the support of millions of small-dollar donors from every state across the country,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said. “President Trump's fundraising haul over Biden is especially remarkable when you consider he has been confined to a courtroom for nearly nine hours a day over the past four weeks.”
The Trump campaign reported spending just $5.5 million, with direct mail accounting for more than $1.4 million of that. It spent only $550,000 on payroll.