By Joseph Morton and Gromer Jeffers Jr.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will be in Dallas for a pair of private campaign receptions Wednesday as he turns his full attention to a November rematch against Donald Trump.
Biden plans to attend a Thursday campaign reception in Houston before flying back to Washington.
Biden was traveling to Nevada and Arizona on Tuesday for events as his campaign touts the strength of fundraising efforts it says brought in $53 million in February, boosting total cash on hand to $155 million.
Those figures reflect fundraising by the campaign itself and related Democratic operations.
“As the cash-strapped Trump campaign scrambles to keep up, hemorrhaging cash on legal bills, Team Biden-Harris continues to break its own records with the highest grassroots fundraising since launch as Americans across the country rally around our campaign,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.
Trump’s February numbers have not been released. The former president’s two major fundraising committees had $36.6 million at the end of January. Biden has been able to squirrel away campaign money while Trump has been spending his to fend off primary rivals and pay for legal bills, according to campaign finance reports.
Biden and Trump recently accumulated enough primary and caucus delegates to clinch their parties’ respective nominations.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the Dallas events.
One of Biden’s Dallas events will be hosted by trial lawyer Russell Budd, Dallas lawyer Regina Montoya and others, according to an invitation obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
The other event will be hosted by Dallas businessman Kneeland Youngblood, according to people familiar with the event who requested they not be identified.
Biden’s visits to Nevada and Arizona reflect the status of those states as key presidential battlegrounds. Texas is not expected to be a battleground in the presidential race, but Dallas and Houston have a base of Democratic donors Biden can tap as he tries to widen his financial advantage.
Both candidates were in the state last month as they held dueling appearances at different points along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump was in Eagle Pass, where he met with Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials, then gave remarks blaming the surge of migrants on Biden.
Biden was about 300 miles away in Brownsville, where he called for Trump and Republicans to pass a bipartisan proposal for addressing the migrant surge at the border.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
