What happens now to the millions of dollars in Biden’s campaign fund?

After weeks of speculation, President of the United States Joe Biden has revealed he will be dropping out as the candidate for the Democratic Party in the 2024 presidential race.

Biden drops out of presidential race, gives approval to Harris

In a candid statement on social media on Sunday, the 81-year-old said serving as president had been “the greatest honor of my life,” but that it was “in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term”.

Shortly after revealing his intentions, Biden threw his weight behind current vice president Kamala Harris as his replacement. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this”.

Although other names have been suggested, Harris would be the logical choice for a number of reasons, including financial ones.

What will happen to ‘Biden for President’ campaign fund?

With a little over three months to go until the election on November 5, the official ‘Biden for President’ campaign committee has amassed an estimated $91.5 million.

Despite the stipulated candidate dropping out, federal law does not require campaign committees to provide refunds to donors, although they could do that if they were asked and they so wished.

Will Kamala Harris have access to Biden’s campaign fund?

However, Biden giving Harris his full approval means she will run in his place, unless something unexpected happens. And she will have access to the campaign fund, as the ‘Biden for President’ committee is technically registered as the “principal campaign committee” for both he and Harris, his VP.

What happens if Harris doesn’t run for the Democrats?

If, for some reason, Harris doesn’t become the Democratic Party presidential nominee, the alternative candidate would not have control of the fund, and the ‘Biden for President’ committee could offer no more than $2,000 to the new campaign committee.

Were that to happen, the money could be transferred to Democratic Party committees (Democratic National Committee, Democratic congressional and senatorial committees, and state and local party committees), who could use it to support federal, state and local candidates.

Biden cannot get the hands on the money himself for personal use, according to federal law.

In any case, with Harris seemingly all but certain to take the current president’s place in the upcoming election, there looks to be little doubt that she will be the one who ends up controlling the fund.