A few days ago, there were reports that some of Biden's biggest donors were holding back, waiting to see how the Biden soap opera would play out. At that time, the Biden campaign was reporting that small-dollar donations (less than $200) were as strong as ever.
Six Democratic advisors and operatives who work with major donors told Politico that the money is beginning to dry up as the trickle of donors calling for Biden to step aside has become a wave.
“This is a massive, massive problem,” one of the operatives who work with major donors said. “Right now, we should be scaling up, doubling, and tripling our goals as we head into the fall. But we’re cratering.”
Some fundraisers have been canceled. Some donors have "threatened to withhold donations until the president drops out," according to Politico's sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss the issue.
Making matters worse, small-dollar donation goals are coming up short by 20-25% for the month.
A national campaign is a huge, sprawling enterprise that gobbles up money 24/7. Biden must pay for 160 campaign offices and more than 500 employees in battleground states alone. Once the money begins to dry up, employees will have to work for free or more likely walk away. Get-out-the-vote operations will be curtailed, TV and radio spots canceled, and community outreach will face cuts.
The erosion of financial support is an existential threat to Biden’s reelection campaign, even as he argues that he has the best chances of any Democrat of beating Trump.
Since the president’s poor debate performance, the Biden campaign has trumpeted their low-dollar fundraising, confirming that they had brought in $38 million in the days immediately following it. The president himself touted those totals as proof that Democratic Party voters — including those who give less than $200 — still backed his bid, even as a growing number of elected officials and pundits raised serious concerns about his candidacy and some have called for him to step aside.
But after the initial small-dollar spike, the Biden operation is now having to make “massive revisions downward” for grassroots fundraising, the person said.
“They’re hoping they can be bailed out by grassroots donors,” said a Democratic donor adviser. “I don’t see any evidence of that working.”
It's even worse among the all-important bundlers who raise cash a million dollars at a time.
“Every single person I’ve talked to says, ‘this is not tenable. We can’t raise any money. It’s impossible.’ These are the same people who were in Atlanta for the watch party at the debate,” said a Democratic operative who works with bundlers.
“We can’t find any money,” the person said.
George Clooney, who hosted a $28 million Hollywood fundraiser, came out on Wednesday with an op-ed in the New York Times calling on Biden to step aside. Paypal CEO Bill Harris went even further, pledging $2 million for a "mini-primary" of some kind.
It's now an open question of how Joe Biden will be able to win these donors back.
“From folks on the fundraising team, they are in five-alarm fire mode and have dramatically lowered their raise goals for each event,” said another Democratic operative in regular contact with the campaign. “They also fear that this will be their worst high-dollar month yet.”
Biden's only strategy at this point is to try to "run out the clock" and stall so long that, in the end, the donors will have a choice of either accepting a Trump presidency or resume giving to Biden.
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