Beating Trump in the Money Wars, Biden Gathers Top Donors
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Tomas Kauer - News Moderator 
At a daylong retreat, 175 of the president’s biggest financiers and fund-raisers will hear from top campaign officials.
The morning after President Biden’s fund-raiser with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, his campaign has planned a daylong retreat on Friday for 175 of his biggest financiers and fund-raisers in New York.
The gathering of what the campaign calls Mr. Biden’s national finance committee will feature a half-dozen briefings from his top political advisers, including his campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, and two former top White House advisers who have moved over to help lead his campaign, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon and Mike Donilon.
The meeting at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel is a sign of how the president has drawn his financial strength not only from grass-roots contributors but also from major donors who can cut checks as large as $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, a shared venture of Mr. Biden and the national and state Democratic Parties.
To qualify as a member of Mr. Biden’s national finance team, donors are asked to write a check for at least $47,900.
But that is just the entry level. To be considered a “presidential partner,” donors have been asked to raise $2.5 million, while a “principal shareholder” is asked to raise $750,000.
The donors are also slated to hear from Quentin Fulks and Rob Flaherty, who serve as deputy campaign managers, as well as Dan Kanninen and Lauren Brainerd, the battleground states director and deputy director. A polling and messaging presentation and a finance presentation are planned, as well.
The gathering comes on one of the last days of the first quarter of 2024, a key fund-raising deadline, as the Biden campaign hopes to expand its early financial advantage over former President Donald J. Trump.
The Biden campaign has said that it entered March with $155 million in cash on hand combined with the party. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee had a combined $44.8 million.
Already this month, the Biden campaign has announced that the joint Obama-Clinton event is expected to raise more than $25 million.
It has not been announced whether Mr. Biden, who was expected to spend Thursday evening in New York, will speak to the donors, though he addressed the last gathering of the national finance committee when he first entered the race at the end of April 2023.
