Joe Biden Raises $15 Million in Third Quarter, Trailing Sanders and Buttigieg

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has raised $15.2 million in the past three months, the campaign said Thursday, a drop-off of $7 million from the previous quarter and a sum that falls short of two leading Democratic rivals.

Mr. Biden, who began the Democratic presidential primary leading in the polls, has seen his advantage slip, falling behind Senator Elizabeth Warren in several recent polls both nationally and in some early-voting primary states, including Iowa and New Hampshire. His total for the third quarter of the year was another sign of unsteadiness.

Several of his opponents released their third quarter totals earlier this week. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has a strong small-dollar fund-raising base, pulled in $25.3 million, his campaign said Tuesday, while Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., reported $19.1 million raised during the last three months. Senator Kamala Harris of California raised $11.6 million.

Last quarter, Mr. Biden pulled in $22 million, one of the biggest hauls in the field for that time period, though he still fell behind Mr. Buttigieg for that quarter.

Mr. Biden announced his total at a fund-raiser Thursday afternoon in Palo Alto, Calif., and the campaign announced it in a news release shortly afterward.

Even before the $15 million figure was released, the Biden campaign and allies were downplaying the significance of the quarterly total. One close Biden supporter pointed out the lack of traction that Mr. Sanders and Mr. Buttigieg have had among the broader electorate, as reflected in polling, and said that if money were all that mattered then Democrats would be nominating the billionaire financier Tom Steyer.

The end of the fund-raising quarter arrived at an uncertain time for Mr. Biden: The House of Representatives is pursuing an impeachment inquiry against President Trump amid revelations that he asked the president of Ukraine to “look into” Mr. Biden and his son Hunter Biden. There is no evidence that as vice president, Mr. Biden intentionally acted to aid his son’s business dealings there, and the news of Mr. Trump’s actions has outraged Democrats and signaled, to some, that the president is concerned about Mr. Biden’s candidacy.

While Mr. Biden is fiercely protective of his family, the moment has thrust the delicate subject into the national spotlight — even as the question of how voters will respond remains fluid, and some of Mr. Biden’s advisers and allies privately acknowledge the risks associated with Mr. Trump’s focus on the Bidens.

That dynamic did not stop his team from fund-raising off the developments involving Mr. Trump. The day after details of the president’s conversation came to light, the campaign tripled its daily online fund-raising average, Mr. Biden’s team said, though an adviser did not respond when asked last week whether that pace had continued.

During the final days of the fund-raising quarter, Mr. Biden spent much of that time at high-dollar fund-raisers, often attending two or even three in one day as he visited wealthy enclaves like Bel Air, Calif., and Park City, Utah. Mr. Biden has been more reliant on high-dollar donors than some of his rivals in the Democratic primary: Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders have sworn off big-money fund-raisers.

At a fund-raiser in Los Angeles last Thursday, Mr. Biden told attendees that his campaign was close to landing nearly 670,000 donations from about 350,000 people, with an average donation of $46, according to a media pool report of the event. At the time, it wasn’t clear if those remarks were referring to the third-quarter haul or to a cumulative total.

The campaign said Thursday that 98 percent of all donations came from grass-roots donors of $200 or less, and said that 56 percent of donors this quarter were new to the campaign.

Shane Goldmacher contributed reporting.