[V]ermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign raised $18 million in the second quarter of this year as it faces the good and bad news of more grass-roots donors giving less.
The sum — equal to Sanders’ first-quarter figure that encompassed the first six weeks of his run — came from nearly 1 million supporters who contributed an average of $18 (down from the self-ballyhooed $27 of his 2016 bid), with 99 percent of pledges at $100 or less and 45 percent sent by people age 39 or younger.
“There have been moments when people have written off the campaign,” manager Faiz Shakir told reporters Tuesday. “We feel we’ve built a strong national grass-roots movement.”
But Sanders’ total is short of the $24.8 million reported by Democratic primary competitor Pete Buttigieg, who collected his money from nearly 300,000 supporters who gave an average of $47.42, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s campaign reported Monday.
Shakir and fellow Sanders staffers have tried to downplay the difference of the two candidate’s totals since Buttigieg became the first 2020 contender to release his financial figures for the quarter that ended Sunday.
On Monday, Shakir said bigger figures were the result of different fundraising strategies.
“Bernie Sanders does not go into closed-door high-dollar fundraisers and solicit money from corporate executives at their homes,” Shakir told CBS News.
On Tuesday, Shakir opened a press conference call by stating Sanders’ second-quarter number was $24 million. Only later did he note the figure included a $6 million transfer of previously raised money, meaning the actual sum collected this April, May and June was $18 million.
“We’re well ahead of what we were doing last time,” said senior adviser Jeff Weaver, campaign manager of Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid against eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “We don’t have to raise the most money. We didn’t have the most money last time and almost captured the nomination.”
Sanders’ campaign estimates it has some $30 million in cash on hand. Buttigieg, in comparison, has nearly $23 million. The rest of the field of two dozen Democratic candidates will be announcing their fundraising totals in the days leading up to a July 15 Federal Election Commission filing deadline.
“Some folks are going to have big numbers in this quarter but they’re going to be scrambling in future quarters,” said Weaver, alluding to donors who hit campaign finance limits. “We’re going to continue to reach out to our grass-roots supporters.”
The Sanders’ campaign has received a total of nearly 2 million individual donations in this cycle, with almost 200,000 since last week’s first Democratic debate and nearly $2 million raised Sunday, the final day of the quarter.
“It is the kind of support that we would take any day of the week over a cushy, closed-door, high-dollar fundraiser in New York City in which people eat parmesan-crusted salmon on toothpicks,” Shakir said. “Our strength is in numbers and we have a million person movement committed to this campaign who can give over and over again.”
