April 27, 2019

Democrats Launch a Joe Biden 2020 Super-PAC

But the former VP wants nothing to do with it.

Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/ZUMA

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Democratic operatives are launching a super-PAC to boost Joe Biden’s run for president, but the former vice president wants nothing to do with it. 

On Friday, the Hill reported that Democratic fundraiser Matt Tompkins has filed paperwork to establish the For the People political action committee to support Biden’s run for president, aiming to raise millions of dollars in order to run national and local media ads, as well as Facebook ads. On Saturday, Biden’s deputy campaign manager tweeted that Biden “does not welcome support from super-PACs.”

While ramping up his 2020 bid, Biden has said he won’t take money from corporate PACs or federal lobbyists, mirroring a number of his colleagues in the Democratic primary, including Sens. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bernie Sanders. Still, Biden faced criticism from Warren for attending a private fundraiser hosted by a top Comcast executive within 24 hours of announcing his presidential bid earlier this week. At the fundraiser, Biden met with many major Republican donors who see Biden as the moderate Democratic most capable of defeating Trump. Also in attendance were plenty of lobbyists who are registered with states, rather than with the federal system—a caveat that Harris, Booker, and Beto O’Rourke have also used to publicly eschew campaign donations from federal lobbyists while still tapping into lobbyist cash. 

The move by Biden to publicly disapprove of super-PACs amid a slew of fellow candidates doing the same also shows how much the Democratic political landscape has changed in a short time when it comes to campaign finance. During Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012, Obama and Biden’s campaign opted to marshal the support of a super-PAC following concerns that their fundraising was lagging behind that of Republicans. 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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