Joe Biden’s boom and bust online campaign

Biden’s online fundraising has tailed off, suggesting problems generating grassroots enthusiasm, a POLITICO review of millions of donations shows.

Joe Biden raised $4.6 million online on his first day in the 2020 presidential race, surprising doubters who thought the former vice president couldn’t run a modern campaign. But since then Biden’s online fundraising has tumbled — looking more like flash-in-the-pan opponent Beto O’Rourke than top-tier rivals like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

More than 60 percent of the $13.2 million Biden has raised online came in the first week of his campaign, which launched in late April, according to a POLITICO analysis of data from the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue. While other top candidates spiked early and then gradually raised more money online as the 2020 campaign has carried on, Biden’s pattern is similar to O’Rourke, who roared into the race with millions raised in his first day but has trickled off since then, watching his standing in the polls erode as the people who flocked to his 2018 Texas Senate campaign stop mashing the “donate” button with every email.

Unlike O’Rourke, Biden has enjoyed a steady stream of high-dollar, in-person events with big donors to bolster his finances, putting him among the top Democratic fundraisers in 2020. But the online totals are a sign that Biden has not built enthusiastic grassroots support for his presidential campaign, despite his lead in the polls.

POLITICO’s day-by-day review of presidential fundraising via ActBlue also shows that the former vice president didn’t generate other types of spikes or breakout moments that other campaigns feasted on during the first half of 2019. That includes well-received debate performances, televised town hall appearances, or even announcing support for impeaching President Donald Trump — all of which drove fundraising for other Democratic campaigns early this year.

Asked about the trends, a Biden campaign aide said there are other indicators that the campaign is building a strong online effort — for example, two-thirds of Biden’s online donors joined his email list since his campaign launch, according to the aide, demonstrating growth. “Our campaign has grown beyond expectations and we fully expect the growth to continue as we focus on building a strong and stable grassroots fundraising operation,” the aide said. And rivals like Sanders and Warren ran for office more recently than Biden and started the year with more up-to-date lists of supporters to contact.