Former Vice President Joe Biden is reporting he raised $6.3 million in the first day of his campaign, the most of any of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates in the first 24 hours after their announcements.
In a news release on Friday, Biden's campaign says he raised the money from nearly 97,000 individuals across all 50 states, including 65,000 who weren't solicited by email. Biden edged former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke's first-day total of $6.1 million and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' sum of slightly less than $6 million.
Biden attended a fundraiser in Philadelphia on Thursday evening aimed at raising $500,000. Hosts said Friday raised substantially more. The former vice president under Barack Obama entered the race Thursday, declaring the "soul of this nation" at stake under President Donald Trump's administration.
He's already scheduled at least two fundraisers in Los Angeles on May 8: one at the home of Joe Waz, a retired telecommunications executive, and Dr. Cynthia Telles, a professor at UCLA's School of Medicine, and the other at the home of James Costos, Obama's ambassador to Spain. Co-hosts of Costos' event include Richard Blum, the husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein; movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg; and other top Obama and Hillary Clinton donors.