[T]he steady spigot of financial support that has bolstered Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign for over a year is showing signs of weakness, with the Vermont senator’s April haul roughly $20 million less than he collected in March.
Sanders raised $26 million in April, compared to $46 million in March and $42 million in February, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Sanders had a tough April electorally, winning only two of the seven states that held nominating contests.
While Sanders performed poorly in a number of states last month, his campaign spent heavily on ads, airfare and other expenditures aimed at winning. In April, the campaign spent the most it ever has in one month, with nearly $46 million in expenditures.
The campaign has roughly $17 million cash on hand, the same it had at the end of March.
The diminished fundraising is most likely connected to the senator’s spate of poor electoral results — which have all but eliminated Sanders from catching up to Hillary Clinton in pledged delegates and securing the nomination.
The campaign’s wounded fundraising abilities were hinted at last week when the campaign laid off hundreds of campaign workers and announced efforts to focus on a few select states, including delegate-rich California.
While the fundraising number was lower than in past months, Sanders remains one of the most effective fundraisers running for president this cycle.
In a press release, the campaign noted that Sanders’ April numbers trumped Clinton’s in March, when she raised $21 million. The Clinton campaign has not provided their April fundraising numbers.
The April money brings Sanders’ total fundraising haul to over $200 million, a huge number driven mostly by small donors. Campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said the average donation in April totaled $26, adding the three common professions of backers are teachers, students and engineers.
“A typical Sanders donor is 27 years old,” Briggs said in a press release. “Forty-one percent of people giving to his campaign are between the ages of 18 and 39, an unprecedented level of support from younger Americans.”
Sanders will likely continue to have enough money to contest a number of upcoming states before the last primary contest, held in the District of Columbia on June 14.
The next state to vote is Indiana, where 92 delegates are up for grabs on Tuesday. Clinton holds a slight edge in the polls ahead of voting, and FiveThirtyEight has estimated that the former secretary of state has a 92 percent chance of victory in the Hoosier State.
In a Sunday press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Sanders again pledged to battle until the end of the primary season, and to contest the convention for superdelegates.
Sanders put pressure on superdelegates Sunday, specifically in states where he won by large margins but saw no superdelegate support.
“In the state of Washington, we won that caucus with almost 73 percent of the vote but at this point Secretary Clinton has 10 superdelegates,” Sanders said. “We have zero.”
Over the last week, Sanders has traveled to a number of states, including Kentucky, West Virginia and Oregon.
He held an event in South Bend, Indiana, on Sunday, speaking to more than 4,200 people.
Reflecting on his campaign, one year old, Sanders looked to reflect on the past rather than project to the future.
“We had no political organization, no money, no name recognition outside of Vermont. We were 60 points behind Secretary Clinton. We were taking on the entire political establishment,” Sanders reminisced. “Well, that was then. Today is today.”
