Biden Brings In $80.8 Million In May, His Best Fundraising Month Of The 2020 Election

TOPLINE

The campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden announced Monday that they raised over $80 million in May, their largest monthly haul of the campaign and a sign that the coronavirus pandemic has not dampened his fundraising as some Democrats worried it would.

KEY FACTS

News Peg

There were concerns among Democrats early on in the pandemic that the need for social isolation would reduce Biden’s comparative advantage of face-to-face campaigning and dampen his fundraising. Those fears appear to have been assuaged, with Biden quickly cutting a $187 million deficit at the start of the general election in March to an $86 million one by the end of April, and now garnering his largest fundraising sum in May. 

Tangent

One other big area of concern for Democrats was tapping into Sanders’ considerable donor base. A Wall Street Journal analysis in May found that just 60,000 of Sanders’ 2.1 million donors had given to Biden by the end of April. With 1.5 million new donors, it seems likely that Biden drew from Sanders’ base in the aftermath of Sanders and Biden making a deal to seat Sanders delegates at the Democratic convention. However, it remains to be seen just how much of Sanders’ donor base gave to Biden.

Big Number

$2.47 billion. According to FEC data compiled by Forbes, the 2020 presidential election has run up a staggering price tag of $2.47 billion thanks in large part to a collective $1.4 billion spent by billionaires Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg in their failed primary campaigns. That already outpaces the cost of the entire 2016 presidential election, which was $2.21 billion.