Donors to pro-Biden super PAC are said to withhold roughly $90 million

Some major Democratic donors have told the largest pro-Biden super political action committee, Future Forward, that pledges worth roughly $90 million are now on hold if President Joe Biden remains atop the ticket, according to two people who have been briefed on the conversations.

The frozen contributions include multiple eight-figure commitments, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of the situation. The decision to withhold such enormous sums of money is one of the most concrete examples of the fallout from Biden’s poor debate performance at the end of June.

Future Forward declined to comment on any conversations with donors or the amounts of any pledged money being withheld. A Future Forward adviser would say only that the group expected contributors who had paused donations to return once the current uncertainty about the ticket was resolved.

Separately, one donor to the group described being approached multiple times by Future Forward since the debate for a contribution but said he and his friends had been “holding off.”

The two people briefed on the frozen pledges declined to say which individual donors were pulling back promised checks, which were estimated to total around or above $90 million. It was not clear how much of the pledged money was earmarked for Future Forward’s super PAC versus its nonprofit arm, which has also been running advertising in key battleground states.

A separate person close to the group said the super PAC had been shying away from making major strategic decisions until it gets more clarity on who will be atop the ticket, though Chauncey McLean, the president of Future Forward, said that characterization was inaccurate in a statement: “Our decisions are solely made in service of supporting President Biden based on the resources available to us.”

An aide to one major Future Forward donor, billionaire Reid Hoffman, who has given $7 million to the super PAC, said that donors were making a mistake in withholding money.

“A funding freeze is a problematic strategy at this point in the election cycle,” said Rae Steward, who advises Hoffman on his giving. “If donors are committed to making a statement by withholding capital from Future Forward or the Biden campaign,” she said, then they should make larger donations to progressive nonprofit groups that are “agnostic about who is at the top of the ticket.”

Steward said that Hoffman had donated $3 million more to the super PAC last month, before the debate.

The cash freeze comes as some advisers around Biden are discussing how to persuade the president to exit the race and as his campaign has begun to test Vice President Kamala Harris in head-to-head surveys of voters against former President Donald Trump. The number of congressional Democrats calling for Biden to step aside is growing by the day.

The potential shortfall in super PAC cash comes as the campaign itself is bracing for a rough July fundraising period as major donors question Biden’s viability to win in November.

In a news conference Thursday evening, Biden dug in. “I believe I’m the best qualified to govern,” he said. “And I think I’m the best qualified to win.”

Future Forward was anointed by Biden’s campaign as its leading super PAC in the early stages of the 2024 race, and it has already announced $250 million in television and digital advertising reservations set to begin at the end of the Democratic National Convention next month.

A leaked poll from a group closely linked with Future Forward after the debate showed that the super PAC had tested the strength of potential Biden alternatives, including Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary.

The poll showed that Biden had a worse overall favorability rating than all the alternatives.

The group convened donors just before the debate for a discussion on the state of its fundraising and the race, according to two people who attended the briefing. Officials with the group told donors that between the super PAC and its nonprofit arm, they hoped to raise $700 million or more for the election and had collected $430 million at that point.