Which Super PAC has frozen money for President Biden’s re-election campaign?
A major blow to the Biden campaign came today after a major Super PAC announced that they would freeze their funds so long as the president remained at the top of the ticket.
The Biden campaign has been informed that Future Forward PAC, one of the largest Super PACs (political action committees) raising money for the Democratic nominee for president, will freeze spending as long as President Joe Biden remains in the race. According to Open Secrets, as of May 2024, the PAC had $92,362,525 on hand. According to The New York Times, the frozen campaign funds include several seven-figure donations, totaling $13 million, made over the past year.
This news comes as the fallout from the president’s disastrous debate performance in late June sparked concerns that he may be unable to defeat Donald Trump in November. The pressure on the Biden campaign has been mounting since the debate, and Future Forward’s decision only reduces his chances of winning should he remain at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Who runs Future Forward?
Limited information is available about the Future Forward and its funding sources. Chauncey McLean serves as the President of Future Forward and has a background in campaign fundraising, specifically in digital advertising. He established Future Forward in 2018 and leads a 501(c)4 non-profit organization called Future Forward USA Action. A 501(c)4 can fall into the category of a dark money group when donors are not made public, and the funds donated to those organizations are then transferred to a Super PAC. On December 29, 2023, the 501(c)4 run by McLean transferred $8 million to the Super PAC he runs, and the sources of that money do not need to be made public.
Though a new poll conducted by NPR/PBS News/Marist found that forty percent of Democratic voters would like to see Biden replaced at the top of the ticket, it is not clear whether it will sit right with voters that the nail in the coffin for the Biden campaign might come from Super PACs funded by millionaires and billionaires. The Democratic Party supported President Biden as the incumbent and thus made it a risk for rising stars within the party to launch their campaigns. In other words, although President Biden won the Democratic primary handily, there were no other viable choices—how democratic that is, can and is being debated now that the party finds itself in this unprecedented position.