Wall Street backed Biden campaign with $74 million in 2020 cycle: report

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has received more than $74 million in donations from those working in the securities and investment industry, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The $74 million total includes money that was donated in 2019 to Biden’s joint fundraising committees and outside super political action committees that support his bid, CNBC reported. The sum includes money that has been collected by these groups from Wall Street within the first two months of October, according to the outlet. 

CNBC reported that former Goldman Sachs President Harvey Schwartz gave $100,000 to Biden’s bid this month. 

By comparison, Wall Street has donated $18 million to Trump’s reelection campaign — $2 million less than was given to then-candidate Trump in 2016.

The amount of Wall Street donations Biden has secured from this demographic exceeds the amount either former President Obama or Trump received in both their election campaigns, according to CNBC.

However, Hillary Clinton outraised all of their campaigns in 2016, raking in $87 million from Wall Street during her candidacy. 

News of the fundraising numbers comes as the Biden campaign has been buoyed by millions of dollars of donations ranging from grassroots, small-dollar donors to larger gifts. 

Earlier this month, the former vice president announced that his campaign had raised $383 million in the month of September, marking the best period of fundraising for the campaign thus far. 

Biden has used the money in his coffers to fund massive television ad buys across the country. Biden’s campaign has spent more than $582 million on television advertising since launching his campaign last year, according to data from the nonpartisan firm Advertising Analytics.

Just this month, the former vice president spent $45 million in one week on the air. 

The Trump campaign last week announced a massive online fundraising haul, as it received $26 million in the hours leading up to the final presidential debate. 

At a campaign rally last week, Trump claimed that he could outraise Biden if he wanted to, saying, “All I have to do is call up the head of every Wall Street firm, head of every major company, the head of every major energy company, ‘Do me a favor, send me $10 million for my campaign.’ ”

Trump said he would not ask for more money from Wall Street because “if I do that I’m totally compromised.”

Some Republicans have been outraised by their Democratic opponents this election cycle. Democratic candidate for Senate in South Carolina Jaime Harrison broke an all-time record this year when his campaign raised $57 million in the third quarter of 2020 in his bid to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). By comparison, Graham had raised $28 million in that period.