Campaign to re-elect Biden as US president raises over £152m

US President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have said they raised more than $90m (£71m) in March and ended the year’s first quarter with $192m-plus (£152m) in cashonhand.

It further stretches their money advantage over Donald Trump and the Republicans.

The Biden campaign and its affiliated entities reported collecting $187m (£148m) from January through to March and said that 96 per cent of all donations were less than $200 (£158).

That total was bolstered by the $26m-plus (£20.5m) that Mr Biden reported raising from a March 28 event at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan that featured former US presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Mr Trump is expecting to raise $43m (£34m) for his campaign when major donors gather at the Florida home of billionaire investor John Paulson on Saturday. That would set a single-event fundraising record. “The response to our fundraising efforts has been overwhelming, and we’ve raised over $43m so far,” Mr Paulson, a hedge fund manager, said in a statement. “There is massive support amongst a broad spectrum of donors.”

Mr Biden’s campaign says the pace of donations has allowed it to undertake major digital and television advertising campaigns in key states and to work with the DNC and state parties to better mobilise would-be supporters before the November election. The campaign said the $192m-plus as of March 31 was the highest total ever by any Democratic candidate.

About 1.6 million people have donated to the campaign since Mr Biden announced in April 2023 that he was seeking a second term.

The campaign raised more than $10m (£7.9m) in the 24 hours after the president’s State of the Union speech in early March.

“The money we are raising is historic, and it’s going to the critical work of building a winning operation, focused solely on the voters who will decide this election – offices across the country, staff in our battleground states, and a paid media programme meeting voters where they are,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. She scoffed at “Trump’s cash-strapped operation that is funnelling the limited and billionaire-reliant funds it has to pay off his various legal fees”.

Mr Trump is facing four separate criminal indictments.