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The Biden campaign plans to hold a fundraiser in Los Angeles featuring former President Obama and Hollywood elites as the president’s poll numbers lag.
The campaign’s latest fundraising efforts will feature a star-studded lineup, including George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and are intended to boost President Joe Biden’s fundraising amid a surge in polling by his likely rival, former President Donald Trump, who held a monster rally in the blue state of New Jersey on Saturday that reports said drew 80,000–100,000 supporters.
To date, President Biden has raised more funds than Trump, but the latter’s campaign has been quickly narrowing the fundraising gap in recent weeks. After officially securing enough delegates to clinch the Republican nomination, Trump experienced a significant surge in donations. Meanwhile, the RNC has maintained its fundraising success following the resignation of Ronna McDaniel.
According to NBC News, the event in Los Angeles, set for mid-June, will include a contest featuring Clooney and Roberts that will run across social media platforms. The campaign aims to energize grassroots donors, celebrities, and other campaign surrogates. Both Clooney and Roberts will help boost donations by lending their names to campaign text messages and emails.
The campaign is aiming to replicate the success of its upscale New York City fundraiser in late March. The event featured former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and raised $26 million—a record for a single event at that time, as campaign staffers touted. While Biden continues to draw donations from high-profile celebrities and wealthy donors, the campaign is still struggling to attract small-dollar contributions.
FEC records show that 35 percent of the donations to Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign have come from big donors, defined as contributions exceeding $2,000. Conversely, small donors, contributing between $1 and $200, account for just 38 percent of the total donations to the president’s current campaign.
Regarding the Trump campaign, 61 percent of its funding has come from small donors, whereas only nine percent has originated from big donors. Comparatively, between 2020 and 2024, Biden’s contributions from big donors have risen by 10 percentage points, while the proportion of similar contributions to the former president has decreased by the same margin.
A week after Biden’s $26 million haul, the Trump campaign raised roughly twice as much money during a single-night event in Florida. After several GOP billionaire donors, some of whom were previously backing other Republican presidential contenders, rallied to support the 45th president, Trump managed to raise $50.5 million in West Palm Beach.
Trump’s fundraising event broke “every fundraising record in history for a Republican or Democrat,” according to a Republican National Committee press release.
“Tonight will be an incredible night for President Trump and the Republican Party, raising an astounding $50.5 million,” Trump campaign senior advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, after locking up the nomination in one of the fastest primaries in modern political history, Donald J. Trump is winning poll after poll and proving that the enthusiasm is on his side. It’s clearer than ever that we have the message, the operation, and the money to propel President Trump to victory on November 5,” the advisors added.
The Trump campaign, the RNC, and affiliated joint fundraising committees raised $65.6 million in March and ended the month with $93.1 million on hand.
“The success of tonight’s event is proving what we already know: Americans are fed up with Biden’s record of failure, from the open southern border and sky-high inflation to the migrant crime crisis that has made everyone less safe,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley and Co-Chair Lara Trump said in a statement. “The Republican Party is united behind the effort to elect President Donald J. Trump, and Americans are lining up to join our movement and retire Crooked Joe Biden once and for all.”
