Biden’s fundraising in Texas sets record
When President Joe Biden reports his March fundraising numbers in the coming weeks, it will include a record-shattering haul from Texas thanks to his recent twoday run through the Lone Star State.
Biden is expected to report at least $6 million from his campaign fundraising stops in Dallas and Houston last week, according to a campaign official familiar with the amount, which would have him on pace to report about $10 million total for his campaign at the end of March — the most any Democrat running for president has ever raised out of Texas at this point in the campaign.
Biden’s $10 million would more than double his fundraising pace from 2020 when he had raised just $4 million from Texas at this point in the campaign cycle. It also would put him nearly $2 million ahead of Hillary Clinton’s record of $7.7 million in March 2016.
At a private fundraiser Thursday in Houston, Biden told supporters in the River Oaks that there are now over 1.3 million individual donors helping fuel the campaign.
“We’re ramping up our campaign headquarters and field offices, opening nearly 100 offices in the last several weeks,” Biden said.
Most of that money is going to battleground states like Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia, where the 2020 race was decided and national experts predict will again be the difference in 2024.
Texas isn’t considered a battleground state, but the Republican advantage in the state has been dwindling. In 2020, Trump beat Biden in Texas by 5.6 percentage points, the closest presidential race since 1996.
While Biden is soaring past his 2020 fundraising pace in Texas, Trump is facing the opposite. Through February, Trump reported raising $8.8 million from Texas donors, compared with the $19.4 million he raked in from Texas donors at this point in 2020. That’s slowed fundraising despite Trump focusing more resources and time on Texas. He has made a dozen stops in the state since he left office, including holding his campaign kickoff rally in Waco last year. In November, Trump was in Houston meeting with oil industry donors to ramp up his fundraising.
During the primary, Republican donors in Texas played a key role in helping Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. Combined, they raised $9.3 million from Texas while Trump raised $8.8 million. Haley raised just over $5.7 million before she dropped out of the race after losing the Texas primary badly.