--- title: Biden Trails Sanders and Buttigieg in Recent Fundraising description: Biden reportedly said his campaign would announce $15 million in third-quarter fundraising—about $6 million less than his previous quarter. canonical: https://time.com/5692475/joe-biden-fundraising-lags/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-10-03T23:48:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:33.251Z article:section: Politics og:title: Joe Biden Trails Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg in Recent Fundraising og:description: Biden aides are doing their best to project confidence og:url: https://time.com/5692475/joe-biden-fundraising-lags/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2800b4b986d53dd/698a03c722fb85367ae29ed8/joe-biden-third-quarter.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Democratic Presidential Candidates Attend Gun Violence Forum In Las Vegas og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Joe Biden Trails Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg in Recent Fundraising twitter:description: Biden aides are doing their best to project confidence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2800b4b986d53dd/698a03c722fb85367ae29ed8/joe-biden-third-quarter.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Joe Biden Trails Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg in Recent Fundraising > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: President Trump Admits He Spoke to Ukraine President About Corruption and Possibly Biden [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Admits He Spoke to Ukraine President About Corruption and Possibly Biden](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lhNynjeO.m3u8) (0:58)  _Published 2019-09-22. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he spoke to Ukraine’s new president about his summer election._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Oct 3, 2019 11:48 PM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the 2020 Gun Safety Forum hosted by gun control activist groups Giffords and March for Our Lives at Enclave on October 2, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the 2020 Gun Safety Forum hosted by gun control activist groups Giffords and March for Our Lives at Enclave on October 2, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ethan Miller—Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Oct 3, 2019 11:48 PM UTC [Joe Biden](https://time.com/5681768/joe-biden-democratic-primary-strategy/) trailed rivals Sen. [Bernie Sanders](https://time.com/5690996/bernie-sanders-stent-artery-campaign/) and Indiana Mayor [Pete Buttigieg](https://time.com/longform/pete-buttigieg-2020/) in July, August and September fundraising, setting up what will be another round of questions about whether the former Vice President really is the best candidate to challenge President [Donald Trump](https://time.com/tag/donald-trump/)‘s re-election. [Elizabeth Warren](https://time.com/5683099/elizabeth-warren-selfies/) has yet to announce her third-quarter fundraising haul, potentially adding another hiccup to Biden’s claim that he is the strongest Democrat in the field. Biden recently told donors in Palo Alto, Calif., that his campaign was expected to announce a $15 million third-quarter fundraising number, according to [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-03/booker-takes-aim-at-childhood-poverty-campaign-update). That’s off from the [$21.5 million he raised in the second quarter](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/03/joe-biden-raised-21point5-million-in-second-quarter-for-presidential-race.html) as a brand-new contender. Most candidates see a donor drop-off during the summer lull, but any perceived dip to Biden’s aura of inevitability face high scrutiny, especially among activists and donors who, above all else, want someone who can defeat Trump. It seems, though, that Biden made up for some serious lost ground in a final sprint. On Sept. 27 — ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline — he [offered](https://time.com/5688499/joe-biden-trump-ukraine-fundraising/) figures about how many donors had contributed and at what levels that suggested he was sitting at about $9.3 million for the quarter. Biden is facing trouble coming at him from all corners. Trump is [telling foreign governments](https://time.com/5691369/trump-impeachment-inquiry-key-players/) that he wants to see them launch an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Trump and the Republican National Committee are spending $10 million on a media campaign trying to frame the Bidens as corrupt and profiteers, and an ad submitted to CNN is seen as so misleading that the cable channel [refuses to run it](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/business/media/cnn-trump-campaign-ad.html). So under siege is Biden, his campaign on Thursday announced a $6 million ad blitz for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to shore up the polling. That figure represents 40 cents of every dollar Biden spent the last three months collecting. Biden aides did their best to project confidence. “Today’s fundraising totals put the campaign in a strong position as we enter the fall,” campaign manager Greg Schultz said in an email. “The question any campaign faces at this point is whether or not you have the resources to compete in early states and sustain your efforts beyond. Our campaign unequivocally does and builds on our strength each week.**“** Still, Biden lagged Sanders by [$10 million](https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/01/politics/bernie-sanders-25-million-fundraising-third-quarter-2019/index.html) and [Buttigieg by $4 million](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/politics/Pete-Buttigieg-fundraising.html) in that July-September stretch. And Warren is already promising to fund a ground campaign in Maine to help defeat **Sen.** Susan Collins’ re-election bid — suggesting she, too, outpaced Biden. At his fundraiser, Biden made no mention of how much cash he had spent or what he had banked. Neither did Schultz in his note. Those specifics aren’t due until Oct. 15 — which also happens to be the day of the next Democratic debate. It could be a very fateful day for Biden, who hasn’t exactly been a master debater yet. Still, Biden entered the race atop the field and has stayed there. “He hasn’t fallen,” noted one former aide who is unaffiliated with anyone this cycle. “The others just rose as people got to know them.” The challenge for Biden will be to keep those competitors from becoming too buoyant before Iowa has its lead-off caucuses on Feb. 3. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5692475/joe-biden-fundraising-lags/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5692475/joe-biden-fundraising-lags/"},"headline":"Joe Biden Trails Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg in Recent Fundraising","datePublished":"2019-10-03T23:48:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:33.251Z","description":"Biden aides are doing their best to project confidence","url":"https://time.com/5692475/joe-biden-fundraising-lags/","keywords":["2020 Election","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2800b4b986d53dd/698a03c722fb85367ae29ed8/joe-biden-third-quarter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Elliott","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2800b4b986d53dd/698a03c722fb85367ae29ed8/joe-biden-third-quarter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic Presidential Candidates Attend Gun Violence Forum In Las Vegas","caption":"Democratic Presidential Candidates Attend Gun Violence Forum In Las Vegas","creditText":"Ethan Miller—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5692475/joe-biden-fundraising-lags/","name":"Joe Biden Trails Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg in Recent Fundraising"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Admits He Spoke to Ukraine President About Corruption and Possibly Biden","description":"President Donald Trump said Sunday that he spoke to Ukraine’s new president about his summer election.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/lhNynjeO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-09-22T20:14:43.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lhNynjeO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5692475/joe-biden-fundraising-lags/","duration":"PT58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5692475/joe-biden-fundraising-lags/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```