Biden authorizes another $18 million to help elect House and Senate Democrats
President Biden is authorizing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to transfer $10 million to House and Senate Democratic campaign committees and is pledging to help raise $8 million for party candidates, a senior party official familiar with the plans tells CBS News.
The president's decision to distribute the money — which he can authorize as the head of the Democratic Party — comes as he continues to play a more muted public role in electing Democrats, compared to previous presidents crossing the two-year mark of their first term. But Mr. Biden has proved to be an effective fundraiser, holding events in recent weeks in California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and another big fundraiser scheduled for next week in Florida.
The plan is to distribute $5 million each to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meaning the DNC has transferred a total of $27 million so far this cycle.
Separately, the president is vowing to help raise another $8 million for the two campaign committees "by a combination of fundraisers, emails, SMS, etc. over the next few weeks." News of the money transfer was first reported by CNN.
In the final campaign stretch, Mr. Biden will be out on the campaign trail. On Friday, both he and Vice President Kamala Harris are heading to Philadelphia to campaign with Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, who is locked in a tight race with Republican opponent Mehmet Oz for retiring Sen. Pat Toomey's seat. Fetterman is still recovering from a stroke he suffered in May, and his continuing struggle with auditory processing was on display during his debate with Oz this week.
Mr. Biden is casting his midterm election ballot this weekend in his home state of Delaware, where in-person early voting began Friday.
Candidate campaign and committee pre-election campaign finance reports are in for Oct. 1-19, with the numbers on how much they spent during that period. All 10 Democratic incumbent senators and candidates in CBS News' defined battleground races outraised their Republican opponents. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia topped all three categories, with $12.1 million raised, $15.5 million spent and $10.4 million cash on hand. Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio and Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin both outraised their GOP opponents by at least $6 million. Sen. Maggie Hassan, of New Hampshire, raised $2.3 million, while her GOP opponent Don Bolduc raised $604,155 and has $349,541 cash on hand.
Recent CBS News polling found that House Republicans continue to lead Democrats, but CBS News estimates that the majority they're expected to win has been narrowing, having ticked down to in our model estimate. Republicans were at 226 according to our models in August and 230 in July. A party has to win 218 seats to take the majority in the House.
Aaron Navarro and Sara Cook contributed to this report.
