Joe Biden and Democratic Party leaders are calling on their top bundlers to start raising over $2 million each as they gear up for a general election fight against President Donald Trump.
Biden's team and Democratic National Committee officials spoke with some of their lead fundraisers over the weekend to discuss their goals going into the final six months of the election. They told the fundraisers that the new tiers for raising money start at $1 million and go up to $2.5 million, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussion. These people declined to be named as the discussions were in private.
These donations would go to Biden's joint fundraising committee with the DNC, the Biden Victory Fund. The decision represents a massive jump in fundraising objectives for Biden's top donors, who originally were called upon to help raise up to $100,000 at the start of his campaign last year. One of the people noted that since then, the most recent top fundraising goal was $500,000.
These goals might be easier to reach now that the campaign has kicked into another gear. The Washington Post reported that donors can now give as much as $620,600 to the joint fundraising committee. Financiers were originally allowed to give $360,600 to the organization.
The move comes as Biden and the DNC are ramping up their general election operations, while the coronavirus has forced campaigns to go fully virtual. Trump's campaign already has a four-year head start and has amassed a war chest that includes two joint fundraising committees with the Republican National Committee. Biden and the DNC combined to raise $60.5 million in April, while Trump and the RNC brought in just over $61 million. The Republican-led effort, however, has $255 million on hand. Biden and the DNC have $103 million on hand.
Biden's team told reporters last week that they plan to hire at least 600 field staffers who will target key battleground states. It remains unclear, though, when the apparent Democratic nominee will leave his home to get back out on the campaign trail.
Biden's campaign plans to target key states that went Trump's way in the 2016 election, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida. It is also looking to expand into Republican strongholds such as Texas, Georgia and Arizona.
The RNC responded on Monday with an eight-figure hiring spree of its own. It plans to bring in 300 more Trump Victory staffers to its targeted states, bringing its field staff to over 1,000.
Representatives for Biden and the DNC did not respond to requests for comment.
