In Democratic Fund-Raising, Joe Biden Falls Far Behind

WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign began October with less than $9 million in the bank as the 2020 Democratic primary race entered a new and more aggressive phase, barely more than a third as much cash as that of his leading rival, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and nearly $25 million behind the race’s money leader, Senator Bernie Sanders.

In the past three months, Mr. Biden spent more money than he raised, $17.7 million compared with $15.7 million, a sign of his operation’s fiscal peril so many months before the first votes will be cast in February.

On the Republican side, President Trump continued to pad his coffers for the general election, announcing that his campaign, the Republican National Committee and their shared accounts had a staggering $158 million cash on hand.

The new disclosures came only moments after Mr. Biden stepped off a debate stage where the dynamics made plain that even his rivals no longer saw him as the front-runner. They are the latest sign that Mr. Biden, who relies mainly on large donors, is struggling to compete with the small-donor-funded campaigns of Ms. Warren, Mr. Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., who entered October with two and half times as much cash as Mr. Biden.

“It’ll be a telling moment for Biden,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who served as communications director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “His supporters will see he does not have enough money, and either that will prompt a bunch of money to come in in the fourth quarter, or he’s going to be in very rough shape.”

“Because you can’t run a serious primary campaign on $9 million,” she added.

Democratic candidates were required to report their fund-raising for the third quarter, which went from July through September, to the Federal Election Commission by Tuesday. Mr. Sanders, of Vermont, led the Democratic field with $33.7 million cash on hand to begin October, while Ms. Warren, of Massachusetts, had $25.7 million, and Mr. Buttigieg had $23.4 million.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Biden noted that he had been in the race for less time than his rivals — he entered in April — and that he had not begun by “dropping $10 million from a Senate campaign, wherever that money was raised from.”

He did not name Ms. Warren, though his allies have criticized her for boasting of her refusal to hold fund-raisers after beginning the race with $10 million from her Senate coffers, which had been raised while she held such events.

With just under $9 million, Mr. Biden is far closer to the cash total of the political newcomer Andrew Yang, who had $6.4 million in the bank to begin October, than to those at the top of the fund-raising leader board.

“Oh my,” Patti Solis Doyle, who served as Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager in 2008, remarked when the figures were first posted on Twitter.

Mr. Biden’s treasury now ranks fifth in the Democratic field, also behind Senator Kamala Harris of California, who had $10.5 million in the bank, though her $911,000 in unpaid bills — to her pollster, media buyer and lawyers, among others — meant that her functional cash on hand was closer to $9.6 million. (Mr. Sanders, Ms. Warren and Mr. Buttigieg reported no debts.)

The self-funding billionaire Tom Steyer, who entered the race in July and reported spending $47 million, also has more financial resources than Mr. Biden heading toward the Iowa caucuses, which are less than four months away.

Mr. Biden’s team has steadfastly said that it has enough cash to run the campaign it wants, and recently announced plans to spent $6 million on digital and television ads in the coming months.

“The fundamental question about fund-raising is: Do you have what you need to run your race? And we do,” said Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager for Mr. Biden.

On Friday, Mr. Biden’s campaign manager, Greg Schultz, scheduled a conference call with the campaign’s donors, presumably to reassure them about the path forward. Top fund-raisers for Mr. Biden recently gathered in Philadelphia for a full day of briefings on Mr. Biden’s strategy through Super Tuesday in early March.

But with Mr. Biden relatively low on funds and now trailing Ms. Warren in some polls in both of the first two voting states, Iowa and New Hampshire, his campaign faces the possibility of a serious pinch on his resources, long before the campaign expands to bigger states like California and Texas.

Tad Devine, a veteran Democratic strategist who advised Mr. Sanders’s 2016 campaign but is not working for anyone in the 2020 race, said the lack of cash would limit Mr. Biden’s political options. He pointed to the variety of areas where campaigns might want to invest money: airing television ads, deploying staff on the ground, staging splashy but expensive events and running a robust digital program.

“Your strategic options are limited,” Mr. Devine said, adding that the options available to Mr. Biden’s better-funded rivals were “much bigger.”

“He’s going to have to place the right bet,” Mr. Devine said. “It’s going to have to be a winner. It’s almost like you’re playing roulette, and one guy gets five numbers and the other guy gets one number. Who’s going to win?”

Over the summer, Mr. Biden had already begun to slash his digital spending budget, which was also clear in the new fillings. He spent about $1 million in the first half of the quarter and about $311,000 in the second half, records show.

During the quarter, Mr. Biden also spent $924,000 on a charter jet company, Advanced Aviation Team, as he raced across the country not only for rallies and speeches but also for dozens of fund-raisers on both coasts. Mr. Biden’s campaign said the costs included paying for carbon offsets.

Mr. Biden’s biggest expense is his payroll, which cost about $6.8 million in the past three months, records show. Mr. Biden had roughly 440 people on his payroll — about as many as Mr. Buttigieg — while Ms. Warren had more than 600 and Mr. Sanders had about 550.

In addition to his staff, Mr. Biden also paid more than $250,000 to various fund-raising consultants and nearly $500,000 in rent to cover both his downtown Philadelphia headquarters and outposts in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

While Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders have rejected traditional fund-raising from large donors, Mr. Biden spent much of September traveling the country to collect $1,000 and $2,800 checks. More than two-thirds of his fund-raising, about $10.8 million, came from donors giving more than $200; less than $5 million came from those who gave less than that.

Mr. Biden was hardly the only candidate to spend more than he raised last quarter. Over half of the candidates, including Ms. Harris, did so, with Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota reporting the highest so-called burn rate, spending $1.62 for every dollar raised.

Several campaigns reported less than $1 million in the bank, though only one candidate who appeared at Tuesday’s debate was in such a dire financial position: Julián Castro, the former housing secretary, had less than $700,000 left.

Shane Goldmacher reported from Westerville, and Thomas Kaplan from New York. Annie Daniel contributed reporting from Washington, Andrew Chavez from New York and Katie Glueck from Columbus, Ohio.

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