Nervous Dem donors await more polls
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Some top Democratic donors are waiting on the first batch of polls from major media organizations before deciding whether to press for Biden's removal as the party's presidential nominee, Axios has learned.
- 🔥 For now, fundraisers are holding their fire. But their anxiety is quietly raging after Biden's bad showing in his debate against former President Trump.
- 📆 That makes the next two weeks as crucial to Biden's survival as the initial 24 hours after the debate, when Biden trotted out supportive statements from former Presidents Obama and Clinton and held an energetic rally in North Carolina.
📱 In private, donors frantically are texting one another, eager for any information on just how disastrous the night was. But so far they aren't calling for the party to ditch Biden.
- That could change if the next round of highly regarded polls look as dismal as his debate performance, several donors told Axios.
- "You can't go into an election 10 points down in early July," said one top donor. "You just can't."
🏎️ Driving the news: Top White House officials, including Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, counselor Steve Ricchetti and senior adviser Anita Dunn, worked the phones this weekend calling donors, allies and elected officials, trying to calm nerves.
- They reminded them that the fundamental dynamic of the race hasn't changed: Voters will choose between Biden and Trump.
- 💰 Biden officials cite a pair of sold-out weekend fundraisers — and strong grassroots donations — to bolster their view that die-hard Democrats aren't ditching Biden.
- "Team Biden-Harris has raised over $33M since Thursday, of which $26M is from grassroots donations," Lauren Hitt, a Biden spokesperson, said in a statement. "Nearly half of our grassroots donations were from first-time donors to the campaign this cycle."
Donors likely will want several weeks of polling data before accepting the Biden campaign's line that the president can recover.
- But they're bracing for some potentially bad numbers.
🔬 Zoom in: "There are very honest and serious and rigorous conversations taking place at every level of our party," Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told MSNBC.
- "We're having a serious conversation about what to do. One thing I can tell you is that regardless of what President Biden decides, our party is going to be unified."
