The Joe Biden re-election campaign is planning a first-of-its-kind fundraiser to bring together Biden and former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama sometime this spring, as it hopes to inject energy into sluggish enthusiasm numbers and fill the campaign’s coffers.
“There is real focus and urgency around making sure we beat Trump,” a Biden adviser told NBC, which first reported the fundraiser plans.
The news comes as the Biden campaign has ramped up in recent weeks, with Donald Trump on the cusp of running away with the GOP nomination. This week alone, Biden has touted his infrastructure spending in Wisconsin, accepted the endorsement of the United Auto Workers union in Washington, D.C., and traveled down to South Carolina to appeal to Black voters.
Around the time of the fundraiser, which is slated to take place in March or April, the campaign is also gearing up to put out a multi-million dollar ad campaign, NBC reported.
“It’s all hands on deck now,” Quentin Fulks, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, told ABC last week. “We are full steam ahead heading into the general election.” Biden officials told NBC that the president plans to hit the campaign trail at least twice a week, as his re-election operation increases its hiring in battleground states.
The earlier-than-expected campaigning means that Biden must raise money—hence the fundraiser. The campaign, however, is still in better-than-expected financial shape: Earlier this month, it announced a record $97 million fundraising hall for the last quarter of 2023—the highest ever amassed by a Democrat this far out from election day.
The fundraiser plans underline the Biden campaign’s all-hands approach to the election, as it looks to draw on the political capital and relatively higher favorability of Biden’s two Democratic predecessors. Obama, in particular, has been in close contact with Biden over the President’s 2024 plans. In a lunch conversation in late 2023, reported by The Washington Post, the former president encouraged Biden to seek out advice from former Obama campaign aides.
The nation’s first Black president has also used his political clout to help raise money for the Biden campaign, helping generate $4 million in small-dollar giving, much of it via a “Meet the Presidents” contest in which donors were given the chance to meet Obama and Biden.
Thus far, Bill Clinton has been less involved in 2024 efforts, though his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has emerged as a prominent Biden surrogate and is expected to play a significant public role in the campaign this year.
The move is not without political risk: Both Clintons and Obama are not generally viewed favorably by the moderate Republicans Biden needs to win in November, nor are they beloved by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
“Everyone is all in,” the Biden adviser told NBC of the fundraiser. “And this kind of event early on is just the latest demonstration of that.”
Jack McCordick
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