Biden's reelection campaign raises $42 million in January, adding to record-setting war chest

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden's reelection campaign and Democratic allies raised $42 million in January, giving the incumbent president $130 million in the bank for the 2024 campaign, significantly outpacing his likely Republican opponent Donald Trump.

The $130 million cash on hand − which also includes money from affiliated fundraising committees and the Democratic National Committee − is the most ever for a Democratic presidential candidate at this point in the election cycle.

January marked Biden's third straight strongest fundraising month, according to figures released by the campaign Tuesday.

The Biden campaign, lacking a formidable Democratic challenger, has been able to save its resources for the general election while the Trump campaign and related committees have spent heavily to fend off Republican rivals in the GOP primary and to pay for legal fees in Trump's several court cases.

"This haul will go directly to reaching the voters who will decide this election," said TJ Ducklo, the Biden campaign's senior communications adviser. "That's reason No. 355 million that we are confident President Biden and Vice President Harris will win this November," he said, taking a jab at the $355 million a New York judge last week ordered Trump to pay for fraudulently over-valuing his real estate empire.

The Trump campaign has not released its January fundraising figures. Trump's main fundraising committee had $33 million on hand at the start of the year, compared to $46 million for the Biden campaign's main account.

Combined with its affiliated committees, the Biden campaign had $117 million on hand to spend at the beginning of the year after raising $97 million in the final three months of 2023.

Biden leaves Washington on Tuesday for a three-day swing in California, where he will attend campaign fundraisers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Los Altos Hills.

In January, the Biden campaign had 422,000 unique donors make 502,000 contributions, according to the campaign. More than 1.1 million donors have contributed to the campaign overall. Ninety-seven percent of all donations to the campaign have been under $200.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden's campaign manager, called the campaign's January fundraising "an indisputable show of strength to start the election year."

“While Team Biden-Harris continues to build on its fundraising machine, Republicans are divided – either spending money fighting Donald Trump, or spending money in support of Donald Trump’s extreme and losing agenda," she said. "Either way, judging from their weak fundraising, they’re already paying the political price."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden campaign posts $42 million fundraising haul in January