President Joe Biden is courting Wall Street execs in an effort to beat the $1 billion campaign fundraising haul he landed in 2020, the Financial Times reported.
Within hours after his Tuesday's reelection campaign announcement, Biden's team was finalizing a two-day Washington event that will bring together Wall Street financiers and other donors, the news outlet said. Biden and his wife, Jill, are expected to be on hand for the event.
Included in the list of attendees is Evercore's Roger Altman, Centerview's Blair Effron, and Blackstone's Jon Gray.
Biden's team had been preparing for an event that featured 60 large donors, but now more than double that number are expected to attend, the Times said attributing the information to two people briefed on the guest list.
The outlet said it interviewed a dozen potential donors, who predicted Biden would have a commanding fundraising advantage as an incumbent who is not facing a serious Democrat challenger.
Many of the donors said they were enthused by Biden's determination to prevent former president Donald Trump from regaining the White House. However, several mentioned that Biden will have to overcome concerns about his age among voters.
"The need for money will be profound," said Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada and former Goldman Sachs banker. "I believe in Joe Biden — I think we're in a crisis moment with regard to the threat to democracy as we know it."
Mohsin Meghji, head of the restructuring advisory firm M3 Partners, said, "I've been a Biden supporter all along, and I want to make sure that they are standing up for business."
The Times, citing information from OpenSecrets, a campaign finance data site, said that in 2020, Biden's campaign raised $1.04 billion — while Trump's brought in $774 million.
However, the amount sent was much higher due to the funds poured into the campaigns by political action committees.
Meanwhile ActBlue, the Democrats' online fundraising platform, said it brought in 24.7% more in the first quarter of 2023 than it did during the same time period four years earlier.
"And 57.2% of donors made multiple contributions in Q1, showing small-dollar donors' sustained engagement and investment in the campaigns, organizations, and issues they support," according to an press release posted Thursday.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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