Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders pulled in over $34.5 million during the fourth quarter of 2019, his campaign said, the largest haul any 2020 Democratic candidate has raised in a single quarter so far.
The Vermont senator’s campaign said Sanders received more than 1.8 million donations over the year’s final quarter and saw an average donation of $18.53. His campaign has raised more than $96 million since he entered the Democratic primary race in February.
Sanders has emphasized the grassroots nature of his campaign fundraising, boasting more than five million individual donations since he entered the race, which he claims is more “than any campaign has received at this point in a presidential election in the history of our country.”
“You build a grassroots movement to beat Donald Trump and create a political revolution one $18 donation at a time, and that’s exactly why Bernie is going to win,” said Sanders’s campaign manager Faiz Shakir.
On the last day of the fourth quarter alone, the Sanders campaign said it snagged donations from 40,000 new donors. His strong numbers put him in a fighting position ahead of the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire primary in February.
Sanders, 78, appears to have bounced back from a heart attack in October that threatened to derail his campaign. On Monday, his campaign released doctor’s notes stating he is fit to serve in the White House.
The Trump campaign continues to out-raise the Democratic candidates by a large margin. The president’s reelection campaign pulled in $46 million last quarter for a total of $143 million last year. The campaign also has $102.7 million in cash on hand.
Sanders’s most formidable contenders for the Democratic nomination, former vice president Joe Biden and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, have not yet released their fundraising numbers for the final quarter of the year. Businessman Andrew Yang’s campaign reported he raised $16.5 million in the fourth quarter, a notable achievement for the formerly little-known tech entrepreneur.
Sanders is currently polling in second place behind Biden, followed by Warren, according to the Real Clear Politics national poll average.