U.S. President Joe Biden gives a thumbs up as he walks with first lady Jill Biden to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House July 14, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
President Joe Biden’s campaign has brought on three allies to help lead his campaign into the next phase of the 2024 election after a strong fundraising haul in the second quarter.
Biden’s addition of three longtime allies to his 2024 reelection campaign leadership ranks comes as his organization looks to ramp up its fundraising. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris raised over $72 million in the second quarter across all of their reelection entities, including his campaign and joint fundraising committees. NBC News reported that the campaign committee alone raised nearly $20 million.
The president’s political team first shared with CNBC that Rufus Gifford, who has been working in Biden’s State Department, is back with the campaign as their 2024 finance chair. Gifford was Biden’s deputy campaign manager for the 2020 election, focusing on finance and other duties.
Former Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., will also have a role with the Biden campaign as a co-chair. He was co-chair of Biden’s campaign during the 2020 election and has since had roles in the administration and the Democratic National Committee. Richmond, who used to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, endorsed Biden at the early stages of his last White House bid.
Chris Korge, a Democratic National Committee finance chair, will have the same title for one of Biden’s joint fundraising committees, the Biden Victory Fund.
“Bringing in these trusted and known leaders that have a strong and proven record of helping win presidential campaigns sends a clear signal to the American people that we continue to build out a powerhouse campaign leadership team that knows what it will take to win in November 2024,” Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, told CNBC in a statement.
“With this talented team at the helm, I’m confident our campaign will have the resources it needs to win again in 2024,” she added.
Biden’s campaign gave a preview of some of their successful voter outreach and fundraising efforts that could help them throughout the year and into a general election fight versus the eventual Republican nominee for president. Former President Donald Trump, who raised over $35 million in the second quarter, has a large lead in national Republican primary polls.
The Biden campaign’s “Dark Brandon” merchandise has driven over half of its online campaign store revenue since launch, according the Biden team. The Biden campaign has been embracing the “Dark Brandon” meme after Republicans pounced on “Let’s go, Brandon!” as a way to insult the president. (The GOP meme got its start after a TV announcer misheard a vulgar chant about Biden as “Let’s go, Brandon!”)
The Biden team also said the ads it put up during Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ botched Twitter Spaces campaign announcement in May performed strongly. DeSantis is a distant second to Trump in national GOP polling averages.
They also launched ads, email outreach and SMS text engagement during Trump’s CNN town hall in May. The Biden campaign added that it’s driving new and old donors to the 2024 reelection effort in part through what they call their “Founding Donor” program, which raised over $1.8 million in the second quarter.