Joe Biden discloses names of elite fundraisers
The elite bundlers on the list range from former Obama administration ambassadors, such as Matthew Barzun — a top Obama campaign fundraiser who served as the US envoy to the United Kingdom — to Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and financiers such as John Rogers of Ariel Investments and Blair Effron of Centerview Partners.
The hundreds of big-name bundlers backing Biden underscore how much elite fundraisers have helped Biden outperform President Donald Trump in the money race in recent months.
Biden is on track to become the first presidential candidate to raise $1 billion from donors in a two-year cycle, and he entered the final sprint to Election Day with a big cash advantage over Trump and his political operation.
Campaign finance watchdogs have repeatedly called on the presidential contenders to voluntarily disclose more information about the fundraisers, known as bundlers because they “bundle” together donations from their business associates, family members and friends to help finance presidential campaigns.
Trump has not disclosed his bundlers. A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday night following Biden’s disclosure.
Saturday night’s release marks the first time Biden has updated his list of bundlers since last December, when he disclosed the names of more than 230 people who had raised at least $25,000 for his campaign at that point.
And Biden’s new list offers less disclosure than those released by the Obama campaign. As a candidate, Obama updated his fundraiser list quarterly and divided bundlers into broad tiers, ranging from those who had collected more than $500,000 apiece to those who had collected between $50,000 and $100,000 each.
Biden’s campaign disclosed the names, home cities and states of each bundler in its Saturday night release but did not list their employers or occupations. Nearly a quarter of Biden’s bundlers come from donor-rich California. New York bundlers were in the second place on the list, followed by those from the nation’s capital.
Biden aides said the 817 individual and couples on the list raised money for the campaign and its joint fundraising committees with the Democratic Party.
Other bold-faced names on the Biden list include hedge fund manager Orin Kramer; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; former Commerce secretary Penny Pritzker, Texas trial lawyer Lisa Blue Baron; veteran Democratic fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell of California; former Pentagon official Michèle Flournoy, viewed as a potential Defense secretary in a Biden administration; and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, once considered a potential running mate for Biden before he picked California Sen. Kamala Harris.
The list also includes some of Biden’s former rivals for the Democratic nomination, including California billionaire Tom Steyer, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Several governors also raised at least $100,000 for the Biden effort. They include Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Jared Polis of Colorado and Phil Murphy of New Jersey.
CNN’s Sarah Mucha contributed to this report.
