(Bloomberg) -- Democratic nominee Joe Biden is steadily eroding one advantage President Donald Trump enjoys as an incumbent -- his cash war chest.
Biden, the Democratic National Committee and a fundraising entity that supports them both ended June with $242 million in the bank, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a tweet, noting they were still “crunching the numbers.”
That puts Biden about $53 million behind Trump, who started raising money shortly after his 2016 election and ran unopposed in the primaries, while Biden only began to focus on the general election in the spring, after he became the presumptive nominee.
Biden ended April with about $100 million in the bank, well short of the $255 million war chest for Trump’s re-election effort. Campaigns report detailed information on their fundraising and spending to the Federal Election Commission on Monday.
Biden outraised Trump in the second quarter, taking in $282 million compared with $266 million for the president. The Democrat has also been spending less than Trump, who launched an expensive ad campaign in early May as his poll numbers sagged. That month, the former vice president’s campaign spent $11.3 million compared with $24.5 million for Trump.
Biden’s ability to narrow the money gap is the latest sign of trouble for Trump, who shuffled his campaign leadership Wednesday.
Fundraising had been a bright spot for the Trump campaign, topping not just Biden but also former President Barack Obama’s well-financed 2012 re-election effort. But Biden started outraising Trump in May, when his big-donor committee, the Biden Victory Fund, started up. It raised $86.4 million in the second quarter. Trump Victory raised just $27.1 million in the same period, as the president held just a handful of in-person fundraisers in June due to the pandemic.
Trump still is far ahead of Biden in total receipts. The president’s re-election operation has raised more than $947 million over the past two years. Biden, the DNC and related groups have raised $563.3 million.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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