By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will be on Donald Trump’s home turf on Tuesday, raising money for his 2024 reelection bid against the Republican primary frontrunner in Florida.
Biden, a Democrat who is seeking another four-year term in the Nov. 5 election, is stopping at fundraising events in Miami and Palm Beach.
Trump, who is heavily favored to win the Republican nomination for president, has made the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach his home since leaving the White House in January 2021.
Biden’s campaign so far has shown little interest in making a major play to win Florida in 2024 despite the state’s longtime former status as a competitive region for both Democrats and Republicans.
Trump beat Biden 51.2%-47.9% in Florida in 2020, improving on Republicans’ margin of victory there four years earlier despite millions of dollars spent by Biden-aligned Democrats.
Still, the Biden campaign has been eager to tap into the financial resources afforded by the state’s well-to-do residents. Floridians were the fourth-largest source of donations to Biden’s 2020 campaign and the third-largest source for Trump’s that year, according to Federal Election Commission data.
Biden and the Democratic Party raised $97 million during the last three months of 2023. Trump raised $45 million in the third quarter, the latest figures available, and not including Republican Party fundraising.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Biden’s fundraising. The Biden campaign declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, the lone remaining challenger to Trump for the nomination, was scheduled to be in South Florida for fundraisers on Wednesday, before returning to the campaign trail in South Carolina on Thursday, according to a senior campaign official.
Hosts for Biden’s Miami fundraiser include Biden Victory Fund national finance chair Chris Korge. The Palm Beach hosts include lawyer Sean Domnick, according to information obtained by Reuters.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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