WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s campaign plans to host a major fundraiser in Los Angeles next month with former President Barack Obama and Hollywood stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts, according to a campaign official.
The star-studded list is expected to boost Biden’s fundraising efforts at a time when Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee aim to ease a cash crunch now that the former president has won the delegates needed to secure the nomination , allowing you to use all the GOP tools at your disposal.
Biden’s high-profile event, set for mid-June, will feature a contest featuring Clooney and Roberts on the campaign’s social media platforms to engage popular donors as well as big-name celebrities and surrogates, according to details shared for the first time with NBC News. The two Oscar winners will also lend their names to campaign emails and text messages in hopes of attracting more contributions.
The campaign plans to hold the fundraiser in Los Angeles in a similar way to the glitzy night Biden held with Obama and former President Bill Clinton in New York City in late March, which raised $26 million. Biden campaign aides said that amount was a Democratic fundraising record for a single event.
The president is also expected to hold a fundraiser with Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the East Coast early this summer, according to a source familiar with the plans, first shared with NBC News.
For months, Biden’s campaign had a financial advantage over Trump, allowing him to build infrastructure in swing states and hire staff.
“We are under no illusion that he won’t close the gap,” said a Biden campaign adviser. “But what he can’t get back is the time we had with all that money to do what we did.”
Biden just concluded a West Coast fundraising campaign through Northern California and the Seattle area this weekend, raising $10 million in two days, according to a source familiar with the total amount who first shared details with NBC News.
News of another big fundraiser comes as the campaign prepares for new campaign finance filings that may, for the first time, show that the Trump campaign is eating into what had been Biden’s biggest lead to date in the 2024 race.
Biden’s campaign ended March with $85.5 million in cash on hand, after raising $43.8 million that month — nearly tripling the Trump campaign’s haul in that period, according to the Commission’s most recent filings. Federal Election. The financial position of the Biden campaign, considering the Democratic National Committee, is almost double that of Trump and the Republican National Committee – $131 million versus $67 million.
Team Biden’s strong march was boosted by three presidents’ fundraisers at Radio City Music Hall. But Trump responded quickly with his own high-dollar case in Palm Beach, Florida, in early April. His campaign said the event raised $50.5 million, some of which will likely be reflected in the FEC’s next order.
The Republican National Committee said this month that it, along with the Trump campaign, expects to report combined fundraising of $76 million in April.
The Biden campaign expects to release April fundraising numbers closer to the May 20 deadline. A campaign official said Trump’s fundraising was expected to increase now that the fight for the Republican nomination is over, but insisted that Biden’s fundraising pace remains strong.
Speaking to reporters last week, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said that regardless of Trump’s April count, the president’s campaign has long leveraged its monetary advantage to build a significant reelection effort on the ground and boost your message across the world. battlefield state radio waves.
“I will take that on whatever dollar figure Trump and his team actually end up presenting in their report,” Tyler said.
Biden has often seen significant increases in small-dollar donations around major events, such as Trump’s victories this year in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, as well as the State of the Union address in March. April, however, was largely dominated by Trump’s lawsuits, while Biden made a series of visits to swing states to discuss the economy, abortion rights and student debt.
Biden attended just two high-dollar fundraisers — in Chicago and the New York area — in April. A New York-based Biden campaign donor who sits on the national finance committee said the number of events attended by not just Biden but other surrogates has “dried up” as donors feel depleted. after the event with Obama and Clinton. But the donor hopes the pace will pick up again this summer.
Obama has been a key part of Biden’s fundraising efforts. In April, the campaign launched a series of digital ads featuring Obama and Biden encouraging viewers to make small donations. In the year since Biden began his re-election effort, Obama’s small-dollar solicitations have helped generate more than $17 million, the campaign said.
Biden and Obama’s teams continue to discuss the scope of the former president’s involvement, including a recent in-person meeting between Obama and Biden senior adviser Mike Donilon, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Obama is also expected to hold fundraisers in the coming months for Democrats’ Senate and House campaign committees, as well as the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, according to an Obama official.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
