Biden is out of the 2024 race. What happens to his campaign donations?

President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his choice for the Democratic nominee. A practical question follows: What happens to his campaign funds? The Biden campaign said it had $240 million in cash on hand earlier this month, compared to […]

President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his choice for the Democratic nominee. A practical question follows: What happens to his campaign funds?

The Biden campaign said it had $240 million in cash on hand earlier this month, compared to former President Donald Trump’s $331 million. Campaign finance rules put some limits on what Biden can do with that money now that he’s no longer running for president.

The money isn’t just in limbo, however. Though it’s not yet completely certain whether Harris will become the nominee — she’d need Biden’s delegates at the Democratic National Convention to assume the candidacy, though his endorsement certainly puts her ahead of any possible competition — she could access Biden’s funds more easily than another Democrat. And the campaign pot only seems to be growing: Major Democratic donors, some of whom had paused their contributions after Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month due to concerns about his candidacy, reportedly reopened their wallets after Biden’s announcement Sunday. 

Biden and Harris already share funds in a campaign committee under campaign finance laws that allow the president and vice president to run together as one ticket, said Saurav Ghosh, the Campaign Legal Center’s director of federal campaign finance reform. If she were to remain on the ticket as the presidential nominee, “the new ticket would maintain access to all the funds in the campaign committee,” Ghosh added. 

That would make Harris’s transition to the top of the ticket seamless — at least when it comes to the money. 

What happens to Biden’s campaign funds if Harris isn’t the nominee?

While it currently seems that Harris has a decent chance of being Democrats’ choice for president, not everyone is on board. Some lawmakers have appeared to back an open process of some sort to select the new Democratic nominee, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama. 

It would be difficult for another Democrat to challenge Harris, given that she now has Biden’s endorsement and the support of millions of Americans who already voted for the Biden-Harris ticket. So even if there is an open process either at the Democratic Convention or before it, Harris would have a good shot at winning the nomination.

But if she doesn’t and drops off the ticket entirely, she and Biden couldn’t just transfer their millions to another Democrat. Campaign finance laws impose a limit of only $2,000 per election for transfers from one candidate to another. There are a few potential workarounds, but it is unlikely that any would allow the new candidate to take full advantage of the value of Biden’s campaign coffers. 

For one, Biden could “offer to refund the money to donors who could then contribute to the new candidate’s campaign,” Ghosh said. But this is an unreliable method: Refunding the money to donors is no guarantee that they will contribute to the Democratic ticket again and relies on them to do the legwork. 

Alternatively, Biden could transfer all his funds to the Democratic National Committee. As much as $32.3 million of that could be spent in coordination with the nominee, and the DNC could also unilaterally spend the rest of the money to support the new nominee, Ghosh said. That’s in addition to the approximately $65 million in cash the DNC had on hand by the end of May. But that approach has a drawback: The DNC might not necessarily target its investments in the way the campaign would prefer. 

Biden could also potentially transfer his funds to an independent super PAC if Harris is not on the ticket. But super PACs cannot coordinate with campaigns, and they are typically charged more to take out ads than campaigns. That means that the money wouldn’t go as far. 

Those are the campaign’s best options. Now, campaign finance rules aren’t likely to be the only determining factor in who ultimately succeeds Biden. But those rules do make Harris the most practical choice (at least from a campaign finance perspective) with months to go before the November election. 

Does PAC money automatically go to Harris? What about other funding streams?

In addition to the funds in his campaign coffers, Biden has also relied on several joint fundraising committees, essentially groups that fundraise across allied political organizations, including the Biden Victory Fund, which had about $40 million on hand as of the end of June.

These committees have signed agreements with Biden’s campaign fund indicating how the funds they raise together at joint fundraisers will be allocated. So long as all of them agree, those agreements can be changed so that they can support the new nominee. 

There are also several major super PACs currently supporting Biden, including Future Forward, which had about $92 million in cash on hand at the end of May. But since super PACs are independent of campaigns, they can change how their funds are allocated at any point.