In the first 41 days of his run for the White House, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) raised $18.2 million, his campaign announced Tuesday.
The money came in the form of nearly 900,000 contributions from 525,000 individual donors, according to campaign manager Faiz Shakir.
“Supporters have shown up big time for this campaign,” he told reporters on a campaign conference call. “Huge, you would say.”
In addition to the $18.2 million in new contributions, Sanders brought to the race $14 million from other campaign accounts, including his Senate reelection fund and his 2016 presidential campaign kitty. He spent a little over $4 million in his first weeks in the race, leaving him with roughly $28 million cash on hand.
According to senior adviser Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ strong fundraising start will enable him to campaign in states he had to write off during his first run for the presidency.
“While we had to, in 2016, make choices about where we could compete … this campaign will have the resources and the volunteer, grassroots strength to compete in every single state in the primary process,” said Weaver, who served as campaign manager four years ago.
Sanders’ announcement came soon after Sunday’s quarterly Federal Election Commission fundraising deadline. Because campaigns are not required to publicly disclose details of their fundraising and spending until later this month, it’s impossible to verify Sanders’ self-reported numbers, nor to compare them to those of his rivals.
Only two others have announced their fundraising figures so far: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) reported raising $12 million from 138,000 individual donors in the first quarter, while Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., said he picked up $7 million from 158,550 donors.
The Sanders campaign held no fundraisers in the first quarter, according to Shakir, and raised nearly all its resources online — mostly from small-dollar donors. The average contribution amounted to $20, he said, and 88 percent of the total money raised came from those contributing less than $200.
“I think they’re playing for the long haul here,” Shakir said of those donors. “A lot of folks [are] thinking that this is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Twenty percent of the campaign’s contributors had not previously given money to Sanders, and a majority were under 39 years old, according to Shakir. “That is unprecedented,” he said.
Sanders fell short of his goal to secure 1 million donations before Sunday. Shakir conceded that there had been “a lot of internal discussion” about whether to announce such an “ambitious goal” that the campaign might not be able to meet. But, he said, “inspiring our movement” was worth it.
“There’s no shying away from 900,000 donations,” Shakir said. “I’m sure all the other campaigns would love to be in that posture.”
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This amount of money is not fair to the other candidates. Shouldn’t there be a cap, say Five million dollars that he could keep. Then anything over that would go back to the Democratic party to help candidates that need financial help. It is not fair that he is established and can raise all of this money. It seems like the richest 10% of candidates have 90% of the money!!
This amount of money is in response to the Citizens United decision which stated, in effect, that big donors could give as much as they want, leaving the voting public out of it. It said money is speech, and the people are speaking. Harris’ $12 million is from 1/4 of the people, and that should tell you something about the people buying her loyalty.
To say it’s not fair to other candidates is ridiculous. Candidates who convince individuals of their worth are entitled to donations from those people. If my money, given to Bernie, is passed on to the Democratic Party, it will shut down all my donations for the coming campaign. I do not support the Democratic Party, and particularly the DNC, which went out of its way to hinder Bernie’s last campaign.
The DCCC has now said it will penalize firms that help challengers to incumbents. Exactly how is that democratic? And why would I give any money to such a corrupt organization?
I still do not feel comfortable with all of this money going to one candidate. It should be shared with the Democratic Party to even out the playing field. Remember, I am only talking about excess campaign money. He could still keep the capped amount of $5 million. Excess campaign money corrodes democracy. That is, it can be translated into excess political power, including the power to generate more excess campaign money. When too much campaign money is concentrated into the hand of too few, democracy suffers. The view that you are promoting is way too capitalistic. This method would be much better as it is socialistic!
seahorsealum, do you live in a bubble? Have you paid any attention to what is going on nationally with money in politics? I’m really curious because you don’t seem to have a clue about the reality of presidential politics.
Nominating Bernie will guarantee Trump wins reelection. Blinded by Trump Derangement Syndrome , the Dems, like lemmings are once again marching over the edge of the McGovern-Dukakis-Mondale Cliff of Death.
I have an ocean front home to sell if you believe this crap that all of these 100 thousand people are only donating $20. What’s really not being said is he’s taking huge donations from PAC’s and foreign countries., like maybe RUSSIA. He was on the show “Face the Nation” where he said he believed the women who accused Biden of touching them. Maybe Sanders campaign should be looked at..His staff has been accused. When the host asked him about it he never answered, She also asked about if he was going to reveal his tax returns.? He said yes but they have to dot their eyes and cross the t’s. so in other words nope!!! He also challenged Pres Trump to show his Taxes.. Pres Trump doesn’t keep his pay, he has been giving it away.. So as an American citizen I demand to see Leahy, Sanders Welch and the rest of Congress Taxes.. Cuz how in HE$$ are they all worth millions $$$$$ on Congress pay. .???