Bernie Sanders raises more money than any 2020 candidate so far

The Vermont senator raised more than $25 million in the third quarter of this year

Published October 1, 2019 5:00PM (EDT)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the New Hampshire state Democratic Party convention, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019, in Manchester, NH. (Getty Stock/ AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the New Hampshire state Democratic Party convention, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019, in Manchester, NH. (Getty Stock/ AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., raised more than $25 million in the third quarter of the year, an increase of more than $7 million over his second-quarter fundraising haul, his staff announced Tuesday.

Though few candidates have released their most recent fundraising hauls so far, the senator's fundraising haul is more than any other Democratic presidential candidate has raised in any fundraising quarter so far this year.

The fundraising total suggests that while Sanders, who has slipped to third place behind Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden in polls of the 2020 race, remains a prolific fundraiser. His campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, argued in a statement alongside the fundraising totals that Sanders' recent haul discredits the notion that the senator is losing momentum.

"Media elites and professional pundits have tried repeatedly to dismiss this campaign, and yet working-class Americans keep saying loudly and clearly that they want a political revolution," Shakir said.

The Sanders campaign said Tuesday that it has more than 130,000 recurring monthly contribution pledges and that roughly 99.9% of his donors have yet to hit the federal caps that limit individual donors to contributing more than $2,800 to any candidate in an election cycle.

Sanders also recently revealed that 1.4 million people have donated to his campaign — a milestone he claimed he reached faster than any presidential candidate in history.

"Our strength is in numbers, and that is why Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who is able to say his campaign will rely on grassroots funding in both the primary and against Donald Trump," Shakir said last month while announcing the news.

Meanwhile, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., on Tuesday revealed his campaign brought in $19.1 million over the past three months. Buttigieg's haul is expected to once again be among the highest Democratic totals this quarter, but his recent haul was less than the leading $24.9 million he raised in the previous fundraising period, which ran from April to June.

"Pete continues to stand out as having the vision and leadership voters know we need to tackle the urgent problems facing our country. It also positions us solidly as one of the top three fundraisers in this race," Mike Schmuhl, Buttigieg's campaign manager, said in a statement released Tuesday morning. "We will have the resources to go the full distance, and to win, the 2020 nominating contests."

Schmuhl's statement also revealed more than 580,000 individual donors had contributed to Buttigieg's campaign since it launched in January.

During the third quarter, Buttigieg's campaign received donations from roughly 182,000 new donors, bringing the campaign's total number of individual donors to more than 580,000 . The average donation size for the third-quarter was $32. The campaign did not disclose how much cash it has on hand.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., raised more than $6 million in the third-quarter, his campaign said Tuesday. The figure marks the senator's best fundraising quarter to date but one that still trails top-tier candidates' hauls. Notably, more than a third of what Booker raised over the third quarter came in the last 10 days of September, after his campaign made an urgent appeal for cash to stay in the race.

"In short, this is a race we can win — if we have the resources we need to steadily grow our campaign and show Democratic voters that Cory is the right candidate for this moral moment in our country’s history," Booker's campaign manager, Addisu Demissie, said in a statement Tuesday.

Candidates must file reports with the Federal Election Commission detailing their third-quarter fundraising and spending figures by Oct. 15.


By Shira Tarlo

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