Obama to appear at first joint fundraiser with Biden next week
Washington — Former President Barack Obama will appear with his former vice president and the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, in a joint fundraiser next week. The fundraiser, which will take place on June 23 and is billed by the Biden campaign as a "virtual grassroots event," will be the first time the two have appeared together since Mr. Obama endorsed Biden in April.
In an email to supporters from the Biden campaign, Mr. Obama said the two will be "answering your questions and talking to folks like you." In the email, Mr. Obama referred to the November election as "the most important election of our lifetimes."
Biden, the Democratic National Committee and his joint fundraising committee raised more than $80 million in May, the most the candidate has raised to date during the 2020 election cycle. According to the campaign, more than half of the donors last month were new contributors, and more than 1.5 million new supporters joined the campaign in recent weeks.
The campaign has also held several virtual fundraisers in recent weeks with major donors due to the coronavirus pandemic. A fundraiser with Senator Elizabeth Warren on Monday evening raked in an additional $6 million, making it the most successful fundraiser for the Biden campaign to date.
"Thank you for asking your friends to help me out. It's the biggest fundraiser we've ever had. And it's all because of you," Biden told Warren on Monday, according to the pool report for the event.
Warren is on the list for potential vice presidential picks. A CBS News poll released in May showed Democratic voters strongly supporting Senator Elizabeth Warren for vice president almost two-to-one over Senator Kamala Harris (36% vs. 19%), followed by former Georgia State Representative Stacey Abrams (14%), and Senator Amy Klobuchar (13%). However, many activists have urged Biden to choose a black woman as his running mate, and it is still unclear who his final pick will be.
