President Joe Biden stands to be left with hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign funds if he drops out of the 2024 presidential race, and according to the Biden campaign, he currently has $240 million in the bank distributed among multiple fundraising committees, which he is co-running under the moniker “Team Biden-Harris.”
That’s far more than the war chests of any other Democratic candidate, including a well-known governor who has worked nationally to raise money for his own political action committee.
But where the money goes from there is unclear, because nothing like this has ever happened before: Even when President Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out of the 1968 presidential race, current campaign finance laws did not exist.
Here’s where the Biden-Harris campaign’s funds are hidden — and where they might go if the president drops out.
President Biden
That’s the primary committee for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, which had $91.6 million in the bank as of the end of May. Because Harris’ name is on the campaign’s founding documents, the prevailing wisdom is that she would inherit the money if she becomes the candidate. And federal law says that presidential campaign funds are also the property of the vice presidential candidate.
Dan Weiner, director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, cautioned that the law has a lot of gray areas. “It’s not clear because we’re not sure that the people who drafted the Federal Election Campaign Act anticipated a situation like this,” he said.
If Harris does indeed receive the money, it will be her only source of funding, as all of her contributions to the 2020 presidential campaign and her 2016 Senate campaign have been zeroed out and voided.
Democratic National Committee
Democrats had $65.2 million in campaign funds at the end of May. The fund has become synonymous with Biden’s presidential campaign, but political parties use the money to support candidates, meaning if Biden were to drop out of the race, the money would likely be used to support the campaign of whoever wins the nomination at the party’s convention in August.
“The DNC will keep that money and likely spend it on the Democratic candidate, whether that’s President Biden or somebody else,” Weiner said. “And right now, I want to emphasize that all signs point to it being President Biden.”
Community Chest Committee
Biden has three joint fundraising committees that collect donations from a single account and distribute them to many PACs, from presidential campaigns to local Democratic Party and congressional campaigns. As of the end of March, the Biden Victory Fund had raised $41.1 million, the Biden Action Fund $19.4 million, and the Democrat Grassroots Victory Fund $1.6 million.
The joint fundraising committees are approved by the groups receiving the funds and are formed with a written agreement that outlines how much money each group will receive, meaning that some of the Biden Victory Fund’s funds, for example, will belong to President Biden.
But it is common for such committees to file new paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and change how much money they allocate to which groups, and they may do so if Biden withdraws from the race.
Super PAC
The main super PAC supporting Biden is Future Forward, which had $92.4 million in funds as of the end of May. Because super PACs are legally required to operate independently of candidates, Biden has no official say in how the money is spent.
Leaders of Future Forward and other super PACs currently supporting Biden may decide to use the money to help elect a new Democratic presidential nominee, move it to another super PAC or refund donors.
Newsom, Pritzker and Whitmer have small fortunes
California Governor Gavin Newsom had $3.5 million in campaign funds for the 2022 gubernatorial election as of the end of December. His national super PAC, Campaign for Democracy Group, had $6 million as of the end of March, and its affiliate Campaign for Democracy PAC had $6.2 million as of the end of March.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker had $7.7 million in his gubernatorial campaign account as of the end of March. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s gubernatorial campaign had about $400,000 in December, and her Fight Like Hell PAC had $1.8 million as of the end of March.
As of the end of March, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had poured $1.4 million into his PAC, Win the Era.
