Sen. Bernie Sanders announced that his first quarter fundraising totaled more than $18 million for his presidential campaign. This is an impressive accomplishment and it puts him at the head of a very large group of contenders. Next in line is Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who says she raised $12 million in the first quarter. The only other candidates to announce what the FEC will make formal in mid-April is former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who raised $9.4 million, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, with an unexpected haul of $7 million in the first quarter. So far, the other candidates are silent–an indication that they may have less than stellar totals to show.
So what are we to make of the first quarter reports? It seems like they will clearly shuffle the deck a bit–putting Sanders and Harris in a bracket of their own. O’Rourke’s $9.4 million came during the first 18 days of his 2020 campaign—including an impressive $6.1 million within 24 hours of entering the race. This total puts O’Rourke at third in the money race so far, a respectable result given his relatively brief time in the race and setting him in first place in terms of dollars raised per day. While Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand have kept quiet on their first-quarter fundraising so far, each now face a high bar, and it could be difficult to avoid disappointment. And then there’s Mayor Pete, who clearly over-performed expectations. He will now have to keep it up.
Welcome to the American presidential primary system, where expectations matter more than actual performance in a cascade of events that begins this month and that will change with every fundraising quarter, every new poll and, eventually, every new primary or caucus. Fundraising has always been an important signal of how a candidate is doing, but this year the Democratic National Committee has added a new twist to the process: Candidates must have 65,000 contributors in order to get into the presidential debates–shifting the emphasis from money totals to supporter totals.
Elaine Kamarck, Founding Director, Center for Effective Management, USA
