Joe Biden’s approval ratings are underwater, and he is losing to Donald Trump in national and battleground state polls. He trails trump is Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Heck, the latest poll out of Michigan has Trump up a whopping eight points. But, Biden boosters, desperate to find some silver lining, are trying to make this election a money race.
According to the New York Times, Biden’s campaign had $71 million on hand at the end of February compared to Trump’s $33.5 million. The liberal media is definitely doing its best to paint a picture of a faltering Trump campaign that is struggling to raise money.
It’s pretty much the only angle they have because the polls paint a much different picture of the campaign.
"Former President Donald Trump may enjoy a slight lead in early polling against President Biden, but the incumbent has a significant lead in another race, which is perhaps just as important this far out from November,” Democrat strategist Douglas Schoen wrote in an op-ed for The Hill. "Indeed, Biden’s cash advantage over Trump — currently sitting at roughly $40 million — may prove decisive in a race largely hinging on turnout and whichever campaign can effectively reach and mobilize voters."
Yeah, tell that to Hillary Clinton, who outraged and outspent Donald Trump in 2016 -- and lost.
But, is Biden’s fundraising advantage really as significant as Schoen presents it? For one thing, as the incumbent, Joe Biden has been jointly fundraising with the DNC since he launched his campaign. Donald Trump only secured the Republican nomination this month. And while it’s true that Trump’s legal fees are an issue, Trump has proven that cash isn’t the most important thing needed to win an election. Even Schoen conceded that "Trump has been in this position before and won. In 2016, he raised $340 million, dwarfed by Hillary Clinton’s nearly $600 million haul, and in that election’s last few weeks Trump was outspent by Clinton $131 million to $94 million."
However, he thinks the dynamics are different this time.
"While it remains to be seen whether Trump, now a known commodity, will connect with voters the same way he did as a first-time candidate in 2016, in an election that figures to be incredibly close, Biden’s cash advantage gives the president a leg-up in certain key areas, primarily advertising, organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts,” he writes.
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I think the polls show that he is. Biden’s been bleeding support from nonwhite voters and young voters—two critical demographics for any Democrat candidate. When it comes to the most important issues of the campaign, Trump also leads Biden on almost all of them. Pretty much the only issue that Biden has a clear advantage on is abortion, but it’s not the issue that is of the highest priority to most voters.
It's clear from the polls that Biden's campaign can't simply buy the presidential election. Despite pouring our hard-earned tax dollars into promoting Bidenomics, it failed to convince the people that the higher prices and lower wages they’ve been coping with on Biden’s watch were just a mirage.
Having money certainly helps, but the contrast between the Trump years and the Biden years is still fresh in people’s minds, and that will matter much more.
