Biden-Harris enter election year with 'historic' $117 million in cash, campaign says

The Biden-Harris campaign raised more than $97 million in the final quarter of 2023 and enters the election year with $117 million in cash on hand, the highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the cycle, the campaign announced Monday.

The campaign has grown its cash on hand for three consecutive quarters -- from $77 million in Q2, to $91 million in Q3, and now $117 million at the end of Q4 -- raising $235 million since launching in April.

December was its strongest grassroots fundraising month so far, the campaign announced in a new memo.

Comparably, then-President Barack Obama's campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and their joint fundraising committee, had $95.3 million cash on hand as they entered his reelection year, according to FEC filings.

"This historic haul—proudly powered by strong and growing grassroots enthusiasm—sends a clear message: the Team Biden-Harris coalition knows the stakes of this election and is ready to win this November," said campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

She added, "Across our coalition, we are seeing early, sustained support that is helping us scale our growing operation across the country and take our message to the communities that will determine this election."

She said the nation's "democracy and hard-fought basic rights and freedoms" are at stake in this year's election. The cash raised amounts to proof that "the American people know the stakes and are taking action early to help defeat the extreme MAGA Republican agenda again," she said.

"While most of the Republicans have not yet announced their fundraising numbers, we fully expect to lap them," said senior advisor for communications TJ Ducklo. "Several times."

The Biden-Harris campaign said in its memo that it finished Q3 with "a larger war chest than the entire GOP field combined," and that in Q2, Biden out-raised former President Donald Trump by more than 2:1 and Ron DeSantis by more than 3:1. Unlike his Republican challengers, Biden's fundraising hauls include sums raised by the Democratic National Committee.