Bernie Sanders Raises $18.2 Million to Lead 2020 Democratic Fundraising

(Bloomberg) -- Senator Bernie Sanders, the early front-runner among declared 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, raised $18.2 million during the first quarter of 2019 as he benefited from one of the biggest online donor lists in national politics.

Sanders has $28 million in the bank after carrying over a previous balance and transferring funds from another account, Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ campaign manager, told reporters on a conference call Tuesday.

The campaign had 900,000 individual donations in 41 days after Sanders formally entered the race, Shakir said, with an average donation size of $20.

Fundraising is seen as an early indicator of the viability of a campaign, much more than early poll numbers, which often measure name recognition as much as voter preference. Still, it’s not a foolproof method of determining eventual electoral success. Donald Trump reported $1.9 million in receipts in his first quarter as a candidate, most of which was his own money

Sanders’s fundraising puts him well ahead of the other Democratic hopefuls who’ve released figures for the first three months of the year. Senator Kamala Harris said late Monday that she raised $12 million from more than 218,000 individual contributions during the quarter. Her announcement followed Monday’s disclosure by Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who said he raised $7 million during the three-month period from more than 158,000 donors. Buttigieg is still technically only exploring a White House bid.

Another fundraising powerhouse, Beto O’Rourke, hasn’t announced a first-quarter tally but had outpaced Sanders in donations collected immediately after announcing his campaign.

The totals are impressive, but still less than the $25 million Barack Obama raised during the first quarter of 2007. That score immediately added credibility to the campaign of a man who was then the junior senator from Illinois.

The announcements mark the start of a key early period in the 2020 campaign. The numbers offer early evidence of who is generating excitement among the party’s grassroots donors at a time when Democrats are placing increasing emphasis on collecting cash from sources other than big donors and corporate political action committees.

The candidates must report their fundraising and spending to the Federal Election Commission by April 15, but individual campaigns often announce collections shortly after the quarter is over to try to showcase their support.

Some likely candidates, including Vice President Joe Biden, may have delayed their entry into the race until after the end of March so that they could avoid the expectations game associated with the first-quarter fundraising.

Sanders raised $15.2 million in his opening quarter of fundraising in 2016, well behind the $47.5 million that Hillary Clinton, the eventual Democratic nominee, took in over the same period.

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