WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bernie Sanders put to rest any suggestion that the movement behind him has faded since his first run for president as his campaign team announced Tuesday that he had raised an immense amount of cash from a huge number of donors.
Sanders’ campaign collected $18.2 million from 525,000 donors — most of them under age 39 — in the first quarter of 2019, campaign officials said. The intimidating show of financial force will likely position Sanders to compete aggressively in every key state, giving him more resources than most of his rivals.
Sanders’ fundraising announcement was one of several events in recent days that have begun to shape the contours of a presidential race that has already veered in some unexpected directions.
Among those was another cash haul by a candidate whose profile is very different than that of Sanders.
Until a few weeks ago, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg barely had a profile at all. But the bookish Navy veteran caught fire after a performance at a CNN town hall that inspired the audience and launched Buttigieg toward political stardom.
By the end of March, Buttigieg had raised some $7 million from more than 158,000 donors, his campaign announced Monday. That earned him the ability to launch professional campaign operations in key primary states as well as a place on the stage of the Democratic presidential debates.
Sen. Kamala Harris of California also disclosed her fundraising numbers Monday. The report from her campaign reflected strong nationwide support for the senator. She raised $12 million from 138,000 donors nationwide.
Campaigns must report their first-quarter fundraising and spending to the Federal Election Commission by mid-April. Those with good stories to tell often report their own numbers in advance of the public disclosure deadline.
At the same time, some of the stars of the party who entered the race with impressive fundraising histories seem to be struggling. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have so far avoided releasing any information about their cash on hand, signaling their numbers are not robust.
Data released by the Federal Election Commission in January revealed that Warren’s campaign launch on New Year’s Eve did not generate anything close to the kind of cash that flowed for Sanders or former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke during their first days in the race.
For Sanders, whose average contribution in the first fundraising quarter was just $20, the largest number of contributors came from California. Some 97,000 Californians gave to him, reflecting his strength even in a part of the country where Harris, a popular home state senator, will also be on the ballot.
