Wealthy Democratic donors are reportedly considering ways they can compel President Biden to step aside in the 2024 presidential race — including boycotting future donations to his party.
The dam has already begun to crack, with Disney heiress Abigail Disney telling CNBC Thursday that she plans to cease all donations as long as Biden, 81, remains on the ticket.
“This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high,” the longtime Democratic booster said in a statement to the outlet.
“If Biden does not step down, the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire.”
Biden’s abysmal June 27 debate performance against opponent former President Donald Trump, 78, sent shockwaves of panic throughout the Democratic party about his ability to serve another term.
A post-debate New York Times/Sienna College poll showed the incumbent lagging his GOP challenger by six points among likely voters.
However, since his disastrous debate performance, Biden has pledged to remain in the race, much to the consternation of some of his heavy-hitter supporters.
Earlier this week, philanthropist Karla Jurvetson, who has given over $200,000 to the Biden Victory Fund this election cycle, said on a private donor call that she agrees with rumblings about halting donations until Biden is excised from the Democratic party ticket, hinting she could turn off the spigot herself, according to CNBC.
Jurvetson donated more than $30 million to Democrats in 2020 alone.
Among the growing concerns by the Democratic donor class is the potential impact Biden could have on down-ballot races in November, according to a blistering New York Times report.
This has prompted wealthy backers — who in an ordinary election cycle are reliable contributors to the Democratic party and the causes they champion — to devise alternatives.
One group is trying to raise as much as $100 million to form an escrow-fund-like pool of money called Next Generation PAC intended to support a potential replacement candidate should Biden step aside.
Absent that, the fund could be used to buoy down-ballot candidates whose election chances are most likely to be hurt by his presence on the ticket.
Some donors have gone so far as to threaten to withhold contributions from Democratic groups as a whole unless he gets out of the race.
Gideon Stein, a stalwart donor with significant connections within Democratic Party politics, told the outlet his family would put the brakes on some $3.5 million in planned contributions to various nonprofits and political organizations if Biden remains the candidate.
He said nearly every other large donor he’s spoken with in recent days repeated some version of “a new ticket is in the best interest of defeating Donald Trump.”
Other donors are reportedly holding their noses and continuing to write checks, not wanting to be seen as associated with a “big-money coup” against a sitting Democratic president, the outlet writes.
“You have to keep funding the machine,” said retired finance executive Andrew E. Beck III, who has given more than $100,000 to the Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee.