Money, Money, Money...Again

We lead this week the same as we did last week, that is with reference to a 1973 hit song by the O'Jay's. The song, “For the Love of Money,” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard R&B chart and at No. 9 of the Billboard Pop Singles chart.

For the Love of Money is always at the top of the charts in a political campaign.

Our report last week detailed a March 27 star-studded fundraiser by the Biden campaign at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. That event, hosted by Stephen Colbert and featuring former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, took in a reported $26 million dollars – a record for a single political campaign event.

That record didn't stand for long.

This past Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida, former president Donald Trump hosted a dinner for about 100 people. FOX News Radio's Madison Scarpino filed this report the morning after:

Trump is calling it the biggest night in fundraising of all time. The event nearly doubled what President Biden raised at a fundraiser with former Presidents Obama and Clinton. This was the first major fundraiser for Trump and the RNC since he became the party's presumptive presidential nominee. Trump said Americans want change. High dollar donors paid anywhere from $200,000 to $800,000 to be at the fundraiser with the former president and first lady, and there were some big names at last night's event, including Governor Doug Burgum, who has endorsed Trump. The Biden campaign slammed Trump's high dollar donor strategy, saying it's a way for Trump to cozy up to billionaires.”

In any presidential campaign for either party, that last assertion is the pot calling the kettle black. Both sides look to big money donors. One of the criticisms of the Trump campaign prior to Saturday's event has been that his big donors from 2016 and 2020 were not coming on board. That appears to be changing as Trump solidifies his position as the presumptive GOP nominee.

But big donors aside, Trump has a commanding lead over Biden among small donors – defined as donations of $200 or less. Small dollar donations are seen by political experts as a proxy for grassroots candidate support. According to figures from last year released in February, Trump took in small dollar donations from more than 100,000 more individual donors than did Joe Biden. Of particular concern to the Biden campaign, those small dollar donations weren't disproportionately sourced from bright red states like Texas and Florida. Trump also leads Biden in this key metric from battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada.

To be sure, President Biden still holds a huge lead over Trump in terms of the amount of money raised. As of the end of March, the Democrats were sitting on a war chest of $192 million in cash on hand compared to $93 million for the Republicans.

But that said, Trump is off to a great start in April.