By Tony Bruce | Friday ,June 14, 2024 | 3 min read
Clooney and Roberts will join former President Barack Obama at a West Coast donor event in the coming weeks, while Bill and Hillary Clinton will headline a similar East Coast event in early summer.
The Biden campaign – which drew in a record $26 million when it booked Radio City Music Hall for an event with Biden, Obama and Bill Clinton in late March – is using the Democratic have-hitters and A-list stars to maintain its financial advantage over former President Donald Trump‘s campaign.
‘We’re not under any illusion that he’s not going to narrow the gap,’ a Biden campaign adviser told the network.
The Biden campaign ended March with $85.5 million of cash on hand, after raising $43.8 million that month, which was nearly triple what the Trump campaign brought in.
When donations to the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee were factored in the Democratic advantage was $131 million over $67 million.
But after Biden’s Radio City Music Hall fundraiser, Trump decided to match it with his own high-dollar fundraiser held at the Palm Beach home of billionaire investor John Paulson.
While it lacked the star power of the ex-presidents, the Trump campaign said it essentially doubled what the Biden campaign earned – reportedly bringing in $50.5 million to the campaign’s coffers.
That number hasn’t yet been backed up by Federal Election Commission filings, which have a mid-July deadline.
Shortly after that, Trump went to Atlanta for a high-dollar fundraiser in the ritzy Buckhead neighborhood, which featured former U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the state’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, and GOP mega-donor and Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus.
That fundraiser, along with another held in Orlando, raised $15 million, a campaign official told Fox News.
More recently Trump came under fire for reportedly telling a group of oil and gas executives that he would roll back Biden’s environmental regulations – suggesting they raise a billion dollars for his campaign for the courtesy.
The Washington Post reported that the conversation occurred at an ‘energy round table’ in mid-April at Mar-a-Lago.
In March, CNBC reported on some of Trump’s donor woes, including that small-dollar donations have slowed.
In 2023, the Trump campaign raised 62.5 percent less cash from small-dollar donations than it did in 2019, the previous year before a presidential election.
But in recent weeks, Trump has used his highly publicized Stormy Daniels hush money case in New York to send out a number of fundraising pleas, which could help entice small-dollar donors back into the fold.
The RNC told NBC that it expects its April tally alongside the Trump campaign to be a combined $76 million.
The Biden campaign is expected to release its fundraising totals closer to the May 20 deadline.
