Anxious about Biden, Democratic donors begin looking to bolster down-ballot candidates

NEW YORK — Shaken by mounting doubts over whether President Joe Biden should lead the party’s ticket, some Democrat donors have begun pinning their hopes on down-ballot races instead.

And insurgent candidates like Long Island’s Laura Gillen could benefit from the newfound interest.

Gillen, a former local official challenging GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, raised about $1.9 million in the past three months — more than tripling her first-quarter haul, POLITICO has learned.

Now, she may see her momentum boosted if resources are reallocated to bolster Democrats’ chances of controlling both the House and Senate as guardrails for a potential Donald Trump presidency.

POLITICO spoke with several donors and fundraisers who said that uncertainty about Biden — following his dismal debate performance nearly two weeks ago — leaves people in their anxious networks deliberating where the best investment lies.

“The events of recent days have put at risk House and Senate Democrats, and we feel it around the country,” said a New York Democratic donor, granted anonymity to speak freely about a sensitive matter. “Clearly, Democratic donors are looking at down-ballot candidates to try to salvage the House or Senate.”

Thus far, Biden has answered questions about his mental acuity with the insistence that he can defeat Trump in November.

But more House Democrats are urging him to withdraw, including New York Reps. Jerry Nadler and Joe Morelle in a private call Sunday.

Questions about his viability will only intensify as Congress returns to Washington later Monday.

And they will keep dogging swing-district candidates weighed down by Biden’s struggles — even if interest in their bids goes up as a result.

Gillen notably did not defend the president in an interview with POLITICO.

“After the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, more Democrats are even more keenly aware of what an existential threat another Trump presidency could be to our democracy,” she said. “And they know that we don’t know what’s going to happen at the top of the ticket, but regardless of what happens there, we need to take back the House to be a bulwark against what could happen if Trump becomes president.”

Gillen, who in 2017 became the first Democrat in more than 100 years to win the Town of Hempstead’s supervisor seat, saw her profile raised nationally when she was added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program in late March just before her massive fundraising quarter began.

D’Esposito declined to disclose his updated fundraising numbers, which aren’t due until July 15. In the first three months of the year, however, he had raised only about half of Gillen's haul.

“Leftwing fundraisers seeking to salvage their progressive agenda by focusing on down-ballot races after Joe Biden’s campaign implosion will quickly learn that Laura Gillen is a perennial loser who Long Islanders continue to reject at the ballot box despite a local Democratic registration advantage,” D’Esposito spokesperson Matt Capp said in a statement, saying polls show voters prefer D’Esposito to Gillen, a one-term elected official.

The district they’re competing in is Biden +14.5, according to the DCCC, the bluest of the six New York battlegrounds that could help determine which party wields the speaker’s gavel next year.

D’Esposito, however, is not considered the most vulnerable of the state’s frontline Republicans. (Election handicappers have given that title to Syracuse-area Rep. Brandon Williams.)

And House Speaker Mike Johnson fundraised for D’Esposito, a retired NYPD detective, during a swing through New York last month that benefited Rep. Mike Lawler and candidate Alison Esposito, both Republicans, farther north in the Hudson Valley. His stop for D’Esposito has not previously been reported and the amounts raised have not yet been publicly released.

A New York fundraiser who works with donors of both parties and was granted anonymity to speak freely on a sensitive matter, said Democrats are in “a tizzy” since the debate. Republicans, meanwhile, are elated and predicting a red wave.

The fundraiser said of the Democrats, “The feeling is that the problems at the top will drag everything else completely under: local, state, federal, everything.”

The Biden campaign, for its part, noted that Democratic donor Amy Goldman Fowler and others have vocally backed Biden’s reelection and said the president’s fundraising this month is already showing signs of strong grassroots support.

Biden spokesperson Kevin Munoz said Republicans are forced to answer for a proposed abortion ban, shipping jobs abroad and undermining democracy.

“This election, whether it’s top of the ticket or a state election, will be decided on the issues that matter most to voters,” Munoz said in a statement, “which is why Democrats will win this November.”

A version of this story first appeared Monday in New York Playbook. Subscribe here.