In the wake of last month’s atrocious debate performance, President Joe Biden is having difficulty fundraising. The fundraising difficulties should come as no surprise – Biden’s debate has sparked a conversation over whether Biden should even be the Democratic nominee, which is hardly the sort of talk the inspires a donation.
And sensing the instability on the ticket, some Biden fundraisers have paused their efforts. The result is the potential for a cash shortage that could further compound the President’s problems, making reelection even less likely than it already is.
“No one is picking up the phone,” one Democratic fundraiser told CNBC, who reported that solicited party members were either not answering calls to donate, or replying furiously, asking why more money should be given to Biden in light of his debate performance.
The individual who spoke with CNBC is a “bundler,” someone who is typically well-connected and affluent and uses their personal connections to raise money directly. “The key is that a bundler spends his or her personal capital asking friends, family, clients and colleagues for what is essentially a favor – to give money to a candidate who shares their values,” CNBC wrote.
A bundler happens to be an important part of a political campaign’s financial scheme. And a bundler’s progress can serve as a litmus test for the campaign’s overall fundraising momentum; basically, when a candidate is trending upwards, a bundler will be eager to engage people about the candidate, but when the candidate is trending downwards, the bundlers will often be amongst the first to feel the downturn, even before the campaign itself.
Well, Biden-aligned bundlers are raising the alarm bells: the Biden campaign is in trouble, and people are intuitively withholding their donations.
“I’m not going to raise any more money or write out checks until I am sure he is the candidate and the campaign finds a date,” one Biden ally and fundraiser told CNBC.
Questions over whether Biden will stay in the race are at the heart of why potential donors are withholding their donations.
Since the debate, where Biden demonstrated that he is no longer fit for office, calls for Biden to step down have intensified. Citizens, and even some members of Congress (albeit only a handful), have publicly called for Biden to step down.
Yet simultaneously, Democratic Party higher-ups have rallied to the president’s defense—or at least have stayed silent on the issue. The result is a degree of tension within the party, a split over a fundamental question that should have been answered long ago at this stage in a presidential election cycle: Do we believe our candidate should be our candidate?
Even if Biden does remain on the ticket, which the notoriously stubborn octogenarian likely will, his chances of winning the election against Trump seem slim. Donors understand this and are not eager to fund an effort that is seemingly bound to fail.
Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
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