U.S. President Joe Biden gives a thumbs up as he walks with first lady Jill Biden to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House July 14, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
President Joe Biden’s campaign has brought on three allies to assist lead his campaign into the following phase of the 2024 election after a robust fundraising haul within the second quarter.
Biden’s addition of three longtime allies to his 2024 reelection campaign leadership ranks comes as his organization looks to ramp up its fundraising. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris raised over $72 million within the second quarter across all of their reelection entities, including his campaign and joint fundraising committees. NBC News reported that the campaign committee alone raised nearly $20 million.
The president’s political team first shared with CNBC that Rufus Gifford, who has been working in Biden’s State Department, is back with the campaign as their 2024 finance chair. Gifford was Biden’s deputy campaign manager for the 2020 election, specializing in finance and other duties.
Former Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., will even have a job with the Biden campaign as a co-chair. He was co-chair of Biden’s campaign throughout the 2020 election and has since had roles within the administration and the Democratic National Committee. Richmond, who used to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, endorsed Biden on the early stages of his last White House bid.
Chris Korge, a Democratic National Committee finance chair, could have the identical title for certainly one of Biden’s joint fundraising committees, the Biden Victory Fund.
“Bringing in these trusted and known leaders which have a robust and proven record of helping win presidential campaigns sends a transparent signal to the American those who we proceed to construct out a powerhouse campaign leadership team that knows what it’ll take to win in November 2024,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, told CNBC in an announcement.
“With this talented team on the helm, I’m confident our campaign could have the resources it must win again in 2024,” she added.
Biden’s campaign gave a preview of a few of their successful voter outreach and fundraising efforts that might help them all year long and right into a general election fight versus the eventual Republican nominee for president. Former President Donald Trump, who raised over $35 million within the second quarter, has a big lead in national Republican primary polls.
The Biden campaign’s “Dark Brandon” merchandise has driven over half of its online campaign store revenue since launch, according the Biden team. The Biden campaign has been embracing the “Dark Brandon” meme after Republicans pounced on “Let’s go, Brandon!” as a approach to insult the president. (The GOP meme got its start after a TV announcer misheard a vulgar chant about Biden as “Let’s go, Brandon!”)
The Biden team also said the ads it put up during Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ botched Twitter Spaces campaign announcement in May performed strongly. DeSantis is a distant second to Trump in national GOP polling averages.
In addition they launched ads, email outreach and SMS text engagement during Trump’s CNN town hall in May. The Biden campaign added that it’s driving recent and old donors to the 2024 reelection effort partly through what they call their “Founding Donor” program, which raised over $1.8 million within the second quarter.
