Biden’s Money Boom Just Getting Going, Fundraisers Say

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden raised more than $7 million after reclaiming his front-runner status as big-ticket fundraisers jumped on board his resurgent campaign. And they expect the money spigot to stay open.

“The problem will now be, ‘Do we have enough hours in the day to have events?’” said John Morgan, a Florida attorney and top fundraiser for Biden. “I’m getting emails after emails of people wanting to do fundraisers.”

One billionaire investor and veteran Democratic donor woke up Wednesday feeling that the rest of the race will be simple: Biden can win as long as he resists the urge to pretend he’s more progressive than he is. And if the economy wobbles or the White House mismanages coronavirus, he said, Trump will lose no matter which Democrat runs against him.

“I feel a hell of a lot better than I did two days ago,” said Bernard Schwartz, one of several supporters who’d been worried enough about Biden’s fundraising to make a six-figure donation to Unite the Country, a super-PAC set up to defend him from attacks coming from President Donald Trump and his GOP allies. “I will put whatever is necessary into his attempt to win.”

The cash infusion comes as Biden tries to ramp up his operation in 11 states, including the delegate-rich states of Florida, Illinois and Ohio, holding primaries over the next 12 days.

Schwartz blamed Biden’s late entry into the race for his poor early fundraising. Through January, he raised $69.8 million while rival Bernie Sanders brought in $121 million, Federal Election Commission records show.

Billionaire Rivals

The change in fortunes is big for Biden, who’s consistently trailed Sanders in fundraising and also faced competition from two self-financing billionaires who blanketed the airwaves with far more advertising than the rest of the candidates combined. Weak finishes in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada seemed to confirm the perception among some Democratic fundraisers that he was an anemic front-runner with a poor, and poorly run, campaign.

The former vice president overcame the disappointing start with a decisive win Saturday in South Carolina’s primary, leading moderate alternatives like Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg to drop out of the race and endorse him. It also ended the campaign of billionaire Tom Steyer.

Wall Street’s mega-donors will start raising more money for Biden now that the field is clearing, the billionaire supporter said. Asked about the candidate’s penchant for gaffes and verbal stumbles, he said that if Trump can get away with them, then the former vice president can, too.

A Biden event held Wednesday night with tickets ranging from $1,000 to $2,800 drew 350 people. Host Sherry Lansing, the producer and former chief executive officer of Paramount Pictures, said the fundraiser had been scheduled months ago and she planned to have 80 people in her living room.

“But then South Carolina happened and the calls just kept coming in,” she said. “Over and over. It was like a deluge and obviously we didn’t want to turn anyone away because anyone who is a friend of Joe Biden is a friend of mine.”

Mitchell Berger, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, says Biden relied on bundlers like him to round up $2,800 donations, the maximum amount, to give his campaign enough money to make it through the early contests. But to match the kind of money well-financed candidates like Sanders and Trump raise, he will need to build up his online donor base.

‘Go Viral’

“The secret to American presidential campaigns right now is to go viral,” he said.

Biden’s haul after Super Tuesday tops the $5 million he raised after winning South Carolina. But Sanders’s campaign announced Wednesday it also brought in $5 million in the wake of his four primary wins. And Sanders’s fundraising juggernaut brought in $46.5 million in February, well above the $18 million Biden raised.

Many Democrats predicted Sanders will continue to enjoy a financial edge throughout the primaries, but don’t think it will hinder Biden’s chances of winning the nomination.

Biden won 10 of 14 primaries on Super Tuesday and claimed the lead in pledged delegates against better-funded rivals, despite having little organization or budget for ad buys in the states he won.

Biden could only muster $2.4 million for ads in Super Tuesday states, less than the $17.7 million Sanders spent and the $243 million of ad buys from Michael Bloomberg, according to Advertising Analytics, but the lack of spending didn’t hurt him. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP, suspended his campaign Wednesday after winning just one contest, America Samoa, and Sanders, who won three states, underperformed.

“Money doesn’t seem to be that helpful to Bernie or the billionaires,” said former Representative Tony Coelho, who was a top fundraiser for fellow Democrats while serving in Congress.

Marc Lasry, co-founder and chief executive of Avenue Capital Group LLC, who has raised money for Biden, echoed that sentiment. He said even if he has less money, Biden has a better message.

“It’s not about the money and it’s not about what you raise, it’s about the candidate,” he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net;Max Abelson in New York at mabelson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, ;Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, Magan Crane

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