Joe Biden says his campaign has raised nearly $20 million

Shane Goldmacher

June 18, 2019 1:59 PM

The revelation came at an unusual moment.

Joe Biden says his campaign has raised nearly $20 million

Former Vice President Joe Biden said at a fundraiser in New York on Monday night that he had already amassed 360,000 donors with an average contribution of $55 — a disclosure that appeared to reveal he has raised $19.8 million for his presidential bid.

That is more than any other candidate raised in the first quarter of the year, when Sen. Bernie Sanders paced the Democratic field and raised $18.2 million from more than 500,000 donors, and there are still two weeks remaining in the second quarter for Biden.

The revelation came at an unusual moment.

Campaigns typically guard their financial hauls closely, only releasing figures at strategic moments to maximize their effect. Biden made the declaration at the Upper East Side home of hedge fund manager Jim Chanos.

Biden thanked the crowd, which Chanos estimated at 180, for having “allowed me to be able to compete in a way that I’ve never been able to before.”

“We’ve raised a great deal of money,” Biden said.

The Biden campaign declined to comment on its fundraising totals or say whether the figures Biden revealed were accurate. It had previously only announced raising $6.3 million in his first 24 hours as a candidate.

Biden still has two full weeks remaining in the second quarter to gather checks from large donors. He has more finance events in New York scheduled for Tuesday, and a big West Coast swing to the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle to close out the month following next week’s first Democratic debate.

In the first quarter of the year, the only two candidates to raise more than $10 million for the Democratic primaries were Sanders of Vermont ($18.2 million) and Sen. Kamala Harris of California ($12 million). Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, is expected to be among the strongest fundraisers in the second quarter, as well.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Shane Goldmacher