Bill and Hillary Clinton to host exclusive Biden dinner fundraiser
Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host an exclusive fundraising dinner for President Biden in Virginia next month.
The June 18 event is being hosted by former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and will come just days after another fundraiser in Los Angeles that will feature President Barack Obama in addition to Biden and Clinton. That event is being hosted by actor George Clooney.
The multi-president fundraising strategy has proven successful in the past, with Biden outraising former President Trump in the 2024 cycle, according to Open Secrets. A similar program in New York raked in $26 million in a single night in New York.
Biden is facing pressure to maintain that lead, however, as Trump’s campaign received $76 million in donations in April, compared to the Biden campaign’s $51 million.
The fundraising totals were a switch from March, when Biden and the DNC brought in roughly $90 million compared to $65.6 million for Trump and the RNC. Biden is still beating Trump when it comes to cash on hand, with his campaign and related committees sitting on $192 million.
Biden had regularly been outpacing Trump in monthly fundraising, but Trump’s April haul was boosted by a record-setting $50.5 million that the former president’s campaign raked in at a single event early in the month with top dollar GOP donors at the Palm Beach, Florida, home of billionaire investor John Paulson.
The Biden campaign has spotlighted its small dollar donations, saying ‘a majority of April’s raise came from grassroots donors, and one million more supporters were added to our email list in the month alone.’
They also took aim at Trump, arguing that his campaign ‘has focused nearly entirely on courting billionaire donors, maxing out early in the cycle instead of building a durable grassroots fundraising program.’
In their announcement earlier this month, Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles pointed to their grassroots fundraising prowess, saying that ‘with half of funds raised coming from small dollar donors, it is clear that our base is energized.’
And they pledged that ‘we are raising the resources necessary to deliver a victory in November.’