Biden raised $42 million in January, his campaign says

President Biden raised over $42 million in January and entered February with over $130 million in cash on hand, his campaign says — a record-setting total for a Democratic candidate at this point in a presidential election cycle. 

The sum, raised through Mr. Biden’s main campaign committee, his two joint fundraising committees and the Democratic National Committee, comes as polling shows the president with an underwater approval rating and tied — or trailing — former President Donald Trump in what seems likely to be a general election rematch. 

The Biden campaign said January was its strongest grassroots fundraising month since launching in April 2023 and 97% of its donations since then have been under $200. 

“While Team Biden-Harris continues to build on its fundraising machine, Republicans are divided — either spending money fighting Donald Trump, or spending money in support of Donald Trump’s extreme and losing agenda,” said Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. 

Polling shows Mr. Biden’s age, 81, has been a concern for voters. In a February CBS News poll, just over a third of voters said they believe he could finish a second term or that he has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president. 

While Democratic base voters have said preventing Trump from winning another term is a higher priority, most independents in the poll believe either that only Trump, 77, has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president — or that neither of them do. 

In the three days after the Iowa caucuses in mid-January, when Trump won the Republican contest by 30 points, Mr. Biden’s campaign said it raised $1 million each day. It also said the campaign averaged $1 million in 24-hour-hauls at the end of January. 

A majority of the fundraising emails sent at the end of January were centered around Trump, who handily won the month’s two GOP nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“After the results in Iowa and New Hampshire, Donald Trump has all but locked up the Republican nomination for president. It’s clear we will have to come together to defeat him again,” read one Biden campaign fundraising email sent on Jan. 31.