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Biden’s campaign said it raised $33 million after the first presidential debate of the year.
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According to the campaign, half of the funds raised came from first-time donors.
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The spike in donations comes as a relief to Biden, who has faced increasing calls to resign.
Supporters of President Joe Biden may have been shocked by his poor performance during Thursday’s presidential debate, but that didn’t appear to hinder his campaign’s fundraising.
“Since the debate, we’ve raised $33 million, $26 million of which came from grassroots donors,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in an X post Sunday.
“Half! Of the donations that have been made in this period, they are from first-time donors. The grassroots Democrats are getting on board,” he continued.
The spike in donations would certainly come as a relief to the Biden campaign. By comparison, former President Donald Trump’s campaign said it raised $8 million the day after the debate.
“Thursday was our best grassroots fundraising day ever, while Friday was the second best,” a Biden campaign aide told CNN.
Biden representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
Biden saw a similar surge in donations after his first presidential debate with Trump in the 2020 election. His campaign said at the time that it had broken its fundraising records when it raised nearly $10 million from 215,000 donors on the day of the debate.
But while the surge in donations will give Biden a welcome boost, it’s certainly not the success the campaign needs right now.
There are growing calls to replace Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee after his disappointing performance at last week’s debate.
And when it comes to fundraising, Biden’s campaign could also lose momentum against his Republican rival.
Trump’s campaign said it raised $141 million in May, more than Biden’s $85 million the same month. And in April, Trump raised $76 million to Biden’s $51 million.
On Saturday, Biden backer and investor Whitney Tilson said he was reconsidering his support for Biden after Thursday’s debate.
“If the man I saw at the debate is the real Joe Biden, then it would be a waste of my time and money to support him because he has virtually no chance of beating Trump,” Tilson said in a post on X.
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