Biden’s bargain-basement campaign strategy

Joe Biden is running his reelection bid on the cheap.

The president has hired fewer than 20 campaign aides. His team hasn’t yet announced a 2024 headquarters. His first political rally this year was paid for by other organizations.

In an interview with POLITICO, Biden campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg said the frugality is no accident. And it isn’t going to change anytime soon, either.

“Right now, we have a fine-tuned race car here. At some point, we will build out a big, substantial, competitive organization and enterprise,” he said. “We don’t need to do that today. It literally would be a waste of money.”

Biden’s approach, while designed to save money, carries the risk of keeping his approval ratings at the low level where they are today. It also could limit his ability to better define the contours of the campaign at a time when the Republican field is bludgeoning each other in their own primary. Twelve years ago, his former boss, Barack Obama, moved swiftly in anticipation of facing off against Mitt Romney during the summer before the election year.

Biden’s campaign and pro-Biden super PACs have spent $7.5 million on broadcast, cable and digital ads since he launched his reelection bid, according to an analysis by the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. GOP frontrunner and former President Donald Trump’s campaign and an outside group backing him have spent $16.4 million in the same time period, with the vast majority of that outlay coming from his super PAC.

There are lots of potential reasons for Biden’s thriftiness. As the incumbent president, he doesn’t need to chase headlines. Because he doesn’t have a serious primary opponent, he’s not under pressure to hit the gas yet in early-voting states, either. And like previous presidents who have run for reelection, he can travel to critical battlegrounds on the taxpayer dime.

Biden also has the luck of running against Trump, who is already well-defined in the eyes of voters, facing myriad legal troubles, and whose ad spending is geared in part toward attacking others in the GOP primary.

But lurking behind the Biden team’s cost-cutting efforts, there is a low-grade anxiety among Democrats about the president’s fundraising abilities.

Though Biden’s campaign aides have expressed confidence in his capacity to bring in the money they believe they need this cycle — some Democrats think Biden and outside groups could top $2 billion in spending — they have not offered so much as a glimpse into his checkbook.

His team did not disclose how much money he raised in the first 24 hours of his reelection campaign. It is also not planning to unveil how much it raised in the first quarter since he kicked off his bid until July 15, the date on which he is legally required to disclose that information.

“No matter what the White House wants to say, you take a survey and a huge plurality of Democratic voters don’t even want him to run again,” said a national Democratic strategist who was granted anonymity to speak frankly. “There’s really an enthusiasm gap that I think is their central challenge.”

Biden’s second quarter haul will be closely studied for signs of whether he is generating excitement among donors. And the benchmark is fairly high. In 2019, when Trump was running for reelection, his campaign and the Republican National Committee raised a total of $105 million in the second quarter of the year.

The president, who has struggled with fundraising in the past, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, went on a mad dash on the fundraising circuit before the most recent campaign finance quarter ended. They held more than 20 high-dollar events across the country, and top Democratic fundraisers such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom participated in some of them.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also rallied members of Biden’s campaign national advisory board in a call ahead of last month’s deadline.

Across a few recent big-money events in California, Biden raised around $10 million, according to two people familiar with the haul.

“We are encouraged by the strong response we are seeing from donors and our grassroots supporters, including a significant number of new donors since 2020,” said Biden campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz.

Biden’s allies say running a lean campaign is smart, at least right now. Dollars not spent unnecessarily are just as important as dollars raised, allies argue.

“I am always a big believer in hoarding resources for the real meat of a campaign,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), who sits on Biden’s campaign national advisory board. “I think saving money now will just prove to be wise come next year when you really need it.”

The campaign is saving money. When Biden spoke at the first political rally of his reelection campaign in Philadelphia last month, labor unions paid for the event, said a person familiar with the spending. A Biden campaign spokesperson confirmed the setup.

Like other presidents running for reelection, Biden has used official White House travel to layer on fundraising events paid for by the campaign and Democratic National Committee too.

Dick Harpootlian, a South Carolina lawyer and state senator who bundled for Biden during his 2020 run, said there isn’t a “frenetic” pressure to do intense fundraising at this point in the 2024 cycle. He stressed that he wasn’t worried.

“If the question is why aren’t they raising more money,” he said, “They’re not attempting to at this point to raise more money. ... It’s just too early.”

Still, there are signs that Biden world is looking to pick up the pace. Biden has brought in some top campaign staff in recent weeks, including a communications director and general counsel. Rufus Gifford is also expected to depart the State Department for Biden’s campaign soon to help with donor outreach.

Biden hasn’t yet announced a fundraising director or fundraising co-chairs, but Katzenberg said the fundraising team will staff up “very, very soon.”

Biden’s team has also touted the fact that every state party and Washington, D.C., have entered into a joint-fundraising agreement with his campaign, enabling donors to cut larger checks. John Atkinson, a Democratic donor who attended Biden’s 200-person fundraiser in Chicago last week, said the bundlers for the president have remained engaged.

“I anticipate fundraising will really start to pick up in this next quarter,” he said. “And I think a lot of it will be driven by what’s going to be a Biden campaign buoyed by [a] good economic record and at the same time Republicans being tied to this extremist Supreme Court that they’ve dreamt about for so long.”

Biden’s campaign can afford to be frugal, in part, because the DNC often picks up the tab. Unlike during the Obama years, the DNC this cycle is in more solid financial shape. It currently has more than 300 staff members and its communications, fundraising and research teams, in particular, have worked closely on Biden’s reelection.

In 2020, Biden had to build his operation from the ground up. Today, Katzenberg said, “we have the luxury of time. He doesn’t need to extract every dollar out of every event. He can actually afford to invest in long-term relationships and get reconnected with his backers.”

Some Democrats, however, fear that Biden doesn’t have the luxury of waiting. The Republican field for president is currently in a fundraising arms race. Trump’s campaign officials have said that his joint fundraising committee collected $35 million in the second quarter, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his top primary opponent, said it raised $20 million in the six weeks since he launched his campaign. Much of that cash will go toward attacking each other. But some of their ads have hit Biden, too.

Then there are questions about whether Biden can kick his fundraising into higher gear when needed. The president is 80 years old. And while the White House says he travels robustly, he also hasn’t run a fast-paced general election campaign since serving as VP in 2012, having won the last one under the cloud of Covid-19.

John Morgan, a Democratic donor and attorney, said he has talked to the campaign about hosting a fundraiser in the fall but it hadn’t yet been confirmed if Biden would attend.

He said Biden’s absence could make it more difficult to bring in a substantial amount of money because, unlike Obama or 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, there is no one else in Biden world who can attract donors the way the president can.

“They want me to raise two to three million bucks. OK, well when you give me that goal, I have to have the tools to do it,” he said.

Referring to one of Biden’s closest aides, he added, “If you want it to be a $500,000 fundraiser, send [Steve] Ricchetti, and we’ll get fucked up on the back porch and smoke cigars. I’m okay with that. But I can’t raise two to three million dollars without a huge draw.”

Several other Biden donors and bundlers said they’re confident the president will bring in the money necessary. Part of it may be that they’re saving up now. But much of it will be that they’ll raise boatloads with having Trump on the political scene.

“With the party energized over all of his legislative accomplishments, I have no doubts that the president will raise the resources he needs to run an effective campaign,” said Neil Makhija, a Democratic fundraiser and the executive director of Indian American Impact.

Christopher Cadelago contributed to this report.