President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have raised more than $85 million in May, according to his campaign on Thursday.
However, Biden's campaign still falls behind former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee's fundraising efforts for the second month in a row, according to CNN.
Trump's political endeavors received a significant boost in May, with a $50 million contribution to a super political action committee (PAC) supporting his campaign from Timothy Mellon, a reclusive billionaire and heir to a banking fortune. Mellon has emerged as one of the largest donors in the current presidential race.
Despite the strong showing by Biden's team, which marked their second-best grassroots fundraising month this cycle, the $85 million was dwarfed by the $141 million that Trump and his political allies claimed to have raised in May.
This was partly driven by donations following Trump's conviction in a New York criminal case on May 30 for falsifying business records.
Biden's campaign announced that its committees began June with a substantial $212 million cash reserve. In contrast, Trump's campaign has yet to reveal the total cash-on-hand for all its committees.
However, filings with the Federal Election Commission late Thursday showed Trump's main committee holding over $116.5 million in cash reserves as of May 31, while Biden's primary campaign account had $91.6 million.
The figures show Trump's recent fundraising success, which has significantly diminished the financial lead Biden held earlier in the campaign.
But Biden's campaign said it has a growing infrastructure, funded by the war chest, and added that they, along with the Democratic Party, have hired over 1,000 staffers in battleground states.
"Our strong and consistent fundraising program grew by millions of people in May, a clear sign of strong and growing enthusiasm for the President and Vice President every single month," said Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. "The money we continue to raise matters, and it's helping the campaign build out an operation that invests in reaching and winning the voters who will decide this election."
The announced total does not include a recent surge in fundraising by Biden. Over the past weekend, he raised more than $30 million at a high-profile event featuring former President Barack Obama and Hollywood celebrities like George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
On Thursday, Biden's campaign received nearly $20 million from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who donated the maximum amount of $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund and $19 million to the FF PAC, a super PAC supporting Biden's reelection bid.
