Senator Bernie Sanders joins former Vice-President Joe Biden atop many polls of prospective Democratic primary voters. But Sanders has something Biden doesn't have (yet): a campaign operation raking in cash.
The senator from Vermont, who showed surprising fundraising heft in his upstart challenge to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton four years ago, raised more than US$18 million ($26.5m) in the 41 days between his official campaign launch and March 31, giving him US$28m cash on hand.
Those totals are expected to lead the Democratic field, putting pressure on other heavyweights, including Biden, who is still deciding whether to run and who is navigating accusations that he's acted inappropriately toward women.
Besides Sanders, Senator Kamala Harris of California put up an impressive US$12m haul. Former Congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas reported US$9.4m, a noteworthy sum given that it came in 18 days.
Sanders' haul shows that his base is just as enthusiastic as it was four years ago. In fact, it may be growing. The senator's campaign noted that of his 525,000 unique donors, about 20 per cent are new, about 100,000 are registered independents and about 20,000 are registered Republicans.
As impressive as Sanders' fundraising has been, it's not as large as previous presidential contenders who were more reliant on big donors.
In her first quarter as a candidate ahead of 2016, Clinton topped US$45m. In 2007, when then-Senator Barack Obama and Clinton were beginning their long battle for the 2008 nomination, the favoured Clinton opened with an initial fundraising quarter of US$36m, while the underdog Obama pulled in US$26m.
EXPECTATIONS GAME: MAYOR PETE WINS
Sanders' fundraising haul set the curve for all candidates and will give pause to some of the other perceived heavyweights in the field, particularly his fellow senators Harris, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Harris is the only candidate of that group to release her fundraising totals.
But the biggest winner may be Pete Buttigieg, an unlikely headline-grabber even among a group of lesser-known candidates that includes governors and members of Congress.
The 37-year-old Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, raised US$7m, calling it "a great look for our first quarter." That might be an understatement.
Such a sum ensures Buttigieg can finance a legitimate campaign operation for months as long as he's not a profligate spender. Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker learned in the 2015-16 Republican presidential campaign that being an early fundraising leader is no guarantee of success; he spent big, ran out of money and dropped out before the Iowa caucuses.
Just as important as the bottom line: Buttigieg said he has almost 160,000 unique donors, a mark that meets the new grassroots fundraising threshold that the Democratic National Committee has set for candidates to qualify for the initial summer debates.
O'Rourke's number also is impressive, and his campaign emphasised that his nearly US$10m came in just 18 days. But that doesn't mean he can sustain that per-day clip. Sanders, for example, raised US$10m, more than half his total, in his first week.
SMALL DONORS RULE THE DAY
It's a new day in Democratic politics, with small donors carrying the day.
Sanders touts that he's held zero traditional fundraisers and has an average donation of US$20 — less than 1 per cent of the US$2800 maximum. Sanders' campaign says the senator got 88 per cent of his money from donors who contributed US$200 or less.
Buttigieg said his average contribution is about US$36, with 64 per cent of his total coming from those donating US$200 or less.
Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur who's never held political office, has raised just US$1.7m, but his campaign says it's come from about 80,000 donors averaging less than US$18 per contribution.
O'Rourke said his average contribution was US$43, with 98 per cent of his donations coming from people giving less than US$200.
This shift largely reflects politicians reacting to a progressive base that looks with suspicion and distrust on big-money donors.
For example, Warren is among the perceived favourites in the field but has promised she'll be financing her campaign without leaning on traditional donors.
Harris isn't eschewing high-dollar fundraisers. In a recent stop in Atlanta, she held one small-dollar event but also a high-dollar gathering sponsored by bundlers who'd pulled together at least US$28,000 for her campaign.
Yet when her campaign aides released fundraising totals for the first quarter, it wasn't the big cheques they touted. Rather, they emphasised that 98 per cent of her contributors gave less than US$100.
Gordon Giffin, a former Canadian ambassador under former President Bill Clinton, recently hosted a fundraiser for Klobuchar in his metro Atlanta home. Traditional fundraising isn't going away, Giffin said in a recent interview, "but that grassroots money can more than make up for it, and candidates have to prove they can do that."
- AP
