President Joe Biden will reportedly begin fundraising in California and Nevada next week to raise money for his likely 2024 reelection campaign.
Biden has planned to visit Rancho Santa Fe, a wealthy donor base near San Diego, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, Politico reported Monday. Biden’s tour is expected to occur Monday and Tuesday.
The trip out west appears to represent the first of many fundraising tours of the 2024 presidential cycle for the president. Biden has previously attended events to raise money for the Democratic National Committee, including the speech he gave in Philadelphia earlier this year. But Biden has not yet fundraised for his own reelection.
The report of Biden gearing up to fundraise for reelection comes after Biden allegedly postponed a February launch and rescheduled it for April. In February, he said he had the “intention” to run.
In March, Jill Biden stated her husband will run for a second term, and only a place and time to formally announce it remains to be decided. “How many times does he have to say it for you to believe it?” Jill Biden asked. “He says he’s not done. He’s not finished what he’s started. And that’s what’s important.”
If reelected, Biden would be 86 years old at the end of his second term.
Biden’s aides have begun to assemble a 2024 “national advisory board” to temper the Democrat party’s division regarding his prospective reelection launch, the Washington Post reported. Biden’s lieutenants are collecting prominent Democrats to serve on the board as a means to extend party alliances to reelection doubters.
Those reportedly asked to join the board are some of the president’s perceived greatest primary threats, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Potential members who are more sympathetic to Biden’s 2024 bid include Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D).
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.