Dem Activists Fume Over Top Biden PAC Spending Decisions: REPORT

Democratic-aligned organizations are frustrated with President Joe Biden’s top super PAC, arguing that it isn’t focusing enough on voter outreach as the president slips with key demographics in the polls, according to The Hill.

Future Forward, one of the largest super PACs backing Biden’s reelection effort, has denied requests from activist groups to increase outreach key voting blocs, including black and Hispanic voters, Democratic operatives and activists told The Hill. The sources voiced frustration that donors are being told to give strictly to Future Forward while the PAC sits on a massive pile of campaign cash.

“These groups are closer to their constituencies and have more capacity to move votes on the ground than the Biden campaign so give them what they need,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon told The Hill. “So if these groups need the money to turn out the base, they should make sure they have it.”

Recent polls show former President Donald Trump attracting much higher than usual support among black and Latino voters, with a New York Times/Siena College poll released in March finding that Trump had a six-point lead among Hispanics. Biden won Hispanics by a margin of 65% to Trump’s 32% in 2020, according to a CNN exit poll.

About 18% of black voters living in swing states plan to throw their support behind Trump, according to a May NYT/Siena College poll. Trump garnered just 12% of the black vote in 2020, according to a CNN exit poll.

“We’re looking for help to reach specific voters that President Biden needs for reelection and we’re being told no,” one source affiliated with a Democratic-aligned organization told The Hill.

Future Forward PAC is flush with cash, as Federal Election Commission records show that it had over $57 million in its campaign account as of April 30.

“They did all that work to get the money but no one knows what they’re actually doing to deploy resources and help educate voters and the time to do that is now,” a Democratic operative told The Hill. “And if Biden slips in the polls this summer, donors are going to grow really antsy about what they’re actually doing.”

Future Forward PAC has, in some cases, been open to funding efforts from other organizations, but only if the groups requesting funds could match the PAC’s contributions, according to The Hill.

“If we could raise the money ourselves, we wouldn’t be talking to them in the first place,” one source said.

Future Forward PAC is being conservative with its assistance as the committee is saving most of its funds for a massive ad buy during the final weeks of the campaign, activists and Democratic operatives revealed to The Hill.

“We have a financial advantage,” a Democratic operative previously told The Hill. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t flex that.”

“I’m certainly not someone who thinks we shouldn’t be spending late,” the source continued. “We definitely should be spending late. And I’m not here to say it wasn’t effective in the past. It was effective. But this isn’t 2020.”

Future Forward PAC appears ready to wage a social media war against Trump, Reuters reported. Future Forward USA Action, the PAC’s 501(c)(4) affiliate, is raising at least $10 million to help Democrats better understand social media algorithms and to partner with liberal influencers in an effort to counter Trump’s dominance online.

“Future Forward is around to help solve problems, and TikTok is a problem and the group is reasonably trying to solve that problem,” one Democratic source told Reuters.

Some of Biden’s aides, as well as other senior Democrats, have become increasingly skeptical of the president’s reelection strategy of focusing on Jan. 6, democracy and Trump’s moral character, according to Axios.

Presidential forecasts modeled by The Economist and Decision Desk HQ both project that Trump has a higher chance of winning the presidential election than Biden.