After President Joe Biden announced Sunday he would not seek reelection, what happens to his campaign cash?
It’s a significant war chest that totaled $240 million at the end of June, including the Democratic National Convention and allied committees, according to an announcement from Biden’s campaign Tuesday. And Biden’s campaign account alone held $95.9 million at the end of June, according to the most recent available data from the Federal Election Commission.
If Vice President Kamala Harris is tapped as the official nominee, she would take over the existing campaign account and have control of funds deposited there, per FEC rules.
If the race were thrown open, the Biden-Harris campaign could transfer all of its cash on hand to the Democratic National Committee, as FEC rules permit unlimited transfers from candidate committees to national party committees.
The DNC could use those funds in several ways to support a new nominee, and could distribute that money to a variety of other down-ballot candidates and allied committees — but in doing so, the DNC would be limited by FEC rules governing spending and contributions for national party committees.
Biden’s campaign could also be converted into a political action committee and largely retain control of its war chest. But it would then be governed by FEC rules for PACs, which restrict contributions to $5,000, sharply limiting its ability to distribute the tens of millions of dollars in cash on hand.
As a PAC, Biden’s funds could also be spent on independent expenditures, such as costly advertising campaigns, to support other candidates, including a new presidential candidate. The new PAC, however, would not be able to coordinate those spending activities with any of the candidates it supports and would face disadvantageous advertising rates.
