Joe Biden will not have to spend any money on the campaign trail during the primary season.
Without doing a single major event, Biden has dominated early voting states, showing that all the polling that showed Democrats wanted someone else is just wrong.
More importantly for Biden, he hauled in $42 million in January, raising his war chest to $130 million.
Talking Points…
- Biden building up massive war chest
- Trump and the RNC
- Analysis
The advantage of being an incumbent is that you generally run unchallenged. This time, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) offered Democrats the choice they asked for, but nobody voted for him. Trump is in the same boat, as polling has found that the overwhelming majority want other options. Yet, Republicans knocked DeSantis out after Iowa, and Nikki Haley is now the last challenger standing, and she has no shot at beating Trump.
For Biden, this has meant that he has not had to spend any campaign cash as of yet, at least not in big chunks. So, he has been able to stockpile cash, bringing in another $42 million in January, topping off his war chest at $130 million.
Campaign Manager Julie Chaven Rodriguez stated:
“January’s fundraising haul – driven by a powerhouse grassroots fundraising program that continues to grow month by month – is an indisputable show of strength to start the election year.”
It was reported last week that the RNC only has about $8 million left in its war chest, and we are not even through the primary races yet. Donald Trump is not in much better shape.
According to the most recent reports, Donald Trump’s legal bills are just eating up his PACs and campaign funds. In 2023, Trump’s PACs spent more than $50 million on legal bills, and they are still coming in and about to get worse with Trump’s heavy trial scheduled fast approaching. One of Trump’s PACs had a war chest over $100 million, which is now down to about $5 million.
Trump has been paying not only his legal bills through these PACs but also the bills of his children. The Clifford Robert firm received $3.9 million from the Save America PAC to pay the legal bills of Eric and Donald Trump Jr. Through all outlets, Trump has less than $40 million on hand, and that is a generous estimate because he surely had to write more checks for attorneys since the last filing.
While Trump leads the fundraising among GOP candidates, he is way behind Joe Biden’s pace. Now, that will tighten up a little once the nomination is secured, as there will be only one candidate to donate to, but even then, will it be enough to keep Trump in the race with Biden?
The problem is that Trump basically needs to double Biden’s fundraising to stay on level ground because of his legal bills. With four federal trials on deck and at least one Supreme Court appeal in the works, Trump is looking at legal bills that are going to be tens of millions of dollars, and they are all coming from his campaign and PAC war chests. If Biden heads into the general election with a 3:1 cash advantage that he currently holds against Trump, how do Republicans expect to compete, especially in down-ballot elections where the RNC and PAC money usually play a significant role?
