Former Vice President Joe Biden has told wealthy supporters he is running for president and asking for their help in lining up top donors so he can quickly raise millions of dollars to compete with other contenders.

Biden, 76, is concerned he won't be able to match the millions some of his Democratic competition raised in their first 24 hours as a candidate, such as Beto O'Rourke's $6.1 million and Bernie Sanders' $5.9 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has told wealthy supporters he is running for president

Beto O'Rourke (left) raised $6.1 million and Bernie Sanders (right) raised $5.9 million in their first 24 hours as official candidates

The former vice president has hinted he would run in 2020 but has yet to make an official announcement, despite a slip of the tongue over the weekend that sent speculation into overdrive.

And he is said to want to announce a large fundraising number after his candidacy is official to compete in the 'money primary' that is the first stage of the primary competition.

He is considering launching his formal exploratory committee around Easter, which means it would be after the March 30 first quarter fundraising deadline.

At a dinner for the Delaware state Democratic Party over the weekend, Biden boasted that he has 'the most progressive record of anybody running.'

He quickly corrected himself, clarifying that he meant to say 'anybody who would run,' then adding 'I didn't mean it' while a cheering crowd in his home state nearly drowned him out.

Trump mocked Biden on Monday morning for the verbal flub.

'Joe Biden got tongue tied over the weekend when he was unable to properly deliver a very simple line about his decision to run for President. Get used to it, another low I.Q. individual!' he said.

The president has also slammed Biden for losing the 2008 presidential primary race.

'He ran two or three times, he never got about one percent. And then [Barack] Obama came along and took him off the trash heap, and he became a vice president, and now he's leading,' Trump told Fox News in January.

And he said in July of last year that Biden would be a dream candidate.

'I dream about Biden. That's a dream,' he told CBS News.

President Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden for a verbal flub

Biden's middle class roots and appeal to Midwest voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan are said to worry Republicans as those are the states that helped put Trump in the White House.

But he also has his liabilities - he is four years older than Trump and he is more moderate than some of his liberal competition.

And even though he's former President Barack Obama's vice president, there's no guarantee Obama's supporters will come out for him in the next year.

He previously sought the presidency in the 1988 and 2008 campaigns. There was speculation he would throw his hat into the ring in 2016 but he ultimately didn't run that year, saying it was too soon after the death of his son Beau.

Finnegan Biden, Jill Biden, Joe Biden and Naomi Biden pose backstage at the hit play based on the classic Harper Lee novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" in December

Biden with former President Barack Obama

Biden withdrew from the 1988 contest over allegations of plagiarism. In 2008, Biden left the race after coming in 5th place and capturing less than 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. Obama eventually tapped him to be his running mate.

The former vice president has a compelling personal story. A a son of Scranton, Pa., he lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident shortly after he was elected senator from Delaware in 1972. His sons Beau and Hunter survived. Biden went on to marry Jill Jacobs and have another daughter.

His son Beau died of brain cancer in May 2015.

Biden could also appeal to Democratic voters nostalgic for Obama.

But he has a long Senate record for opponents to pick through and a tendency to speak first that has gotten him into trouble in the past.

More than a dozen Democrats have already launched formal 2020 presidential campaigns.

A CNN poll out on Tuesday showed Biden leads the field for the nomination even though he has not officially tossed his hat in the ring.