By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign and his Democratic Party allies raised more than $42 million in January and have $130 million cash-on-hand as they prepare for a likely general election contest against Republican Donald Trump.
The fundraising figures, released by Biden’s campaign, were propelled by small-dollar donors giving money online, officials said.
“January’s fundraising haul – driven by a powerhouse grassroots fundraising program that continues to grow month by month – is an indisputable show of strength to start the election year,” Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.
The fundraising totals include money contributed to the Biden campaign, the Democratic National Committee and their related joint-fundraising committees.
Biden is kicking off a fresh fundraising trip to California on Tuesday. He is expected to attend fundraisers in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas before returning to Washington on Thursday.
Biden’s latest cash haul comes as he has shaken up his re-election effort, sending top White House aides Mike Donilon and Jen O’Malley Dillon to his Wilmington, Delaware-based campaign to help oversee strategy and planning amid concerns among Democrats about a rocky start and shaky polling for the incumbent president.
Biden and Trump remain neck-and-neck in the contest for the White House, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, with the former president getting the support of 37% of respondents and Biden getting backing from 34%.
The poll was conducted after Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report declining to charge Biden for taking classified documents when he left the vice presidency in 2017 but criticizing his memory and mental acuity.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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