Pittsburgh-area Dem donors prefer Sanders
Bernie has big lead, with Warren in 2nd place
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ position in Democratic primary polls has slipped since early in the year, both in Pennsylvania and nationally, but one bedrock of his campaign remains very strong: his fundraising ability. August filings to the Federal Election Commission show that Mr. Sanders, as he did in the 2016 primary, continues to have an extremely large donor pool, outraising other Democrats by a significant margin.
An analysis by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, using data compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, shows the same is true in the Pittsburgh area. In the seven-county area, Mr. Sanders has an overwhelming lead, receiving $200,762 from 4,965 unique donors.
Airen Lowenstein, a University of Pittsburgh student who has given to Mr. Sanders 22 times in small increments, said that for her, “It’s always been Bernie.”
“He’s always been fighting for us. The record will show that. He talks to us, even my generation,” Ms. Lowenstein, 23, said. In addition to her regular donations, Ms. Lowenstein attended a rally Mr. Sanders held at Pitt in April, one of just two front-runner visits to the area so far this campaign. She likes hisproposals to cancel student debt and create a single-payer health caresystem, she said.
The next best fundraiser, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, raised $129,495 from 2,877 donors. Ms.Warren’s growing poll numbers are reflected in the donations: her best month of the six was June, when she received over double the donationsof her second-best.
Damon Bethea, who directs a mentor program for the United Way, gave to Ms. Warren 53 times, totaling $1,202, starting in January. “A lot of her proposals and thoughts around [corruption in Washington] really resonated. It’s time to think about how to transform Washington,”Mr. Bethea said.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg came in third, with
$122,181 from 2,563 donors.
Amy DePalma, an Edgewood web developer, said she was a supporter of Mr. Sanders in 2016 and gave to other candidates earlier this year, but she likes Mr. Buttigieg’s proposals for “democratic reform.” She gave to him 39 times in the first half of 2019, more than anyone else in the area.
“We can’t do anything without reforming the Supreme Court and the electoral college. We can’t do Medicare for All,” Ms. DePalma said, referring to Mr. Sanders’ health care plan that would guarantee insurance for all Americans. Mr. Buttigieg has said he supports eliminating the electoral college and adding more seatsto the Supreme Court.
This analysis uses data accounting for over 90% of all donations to Democratic presidential candidates in the first half of 2019, including both itemized contributions from the campaigns and all contributions made through the fundraising platform ActBlue, which filed its own disclosure. The exception is contributions not made through ActBlue which add up to less $200 per contributor, such as small donations made at events or through the mail, or purchases of merchandise.
No centralized platform like ActBlue is in regular use by Republican campaigns, so data is available for a much smaller segment of donations to President Donald Trump (and his lone major challenger, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld), making comparisons impossible. Mr. Trump’s national totals are larger even than Mr. Sanders’, and his itemized contributions include substantial amounts from the Pittsburgh area, but less than 40%are itemized.
According to Terry Madonna, director of Franklin and Marshall College poll, fundraising numbers do not correlate directly with votes, as people who donate are a small subset of voters — but they’re still very important, forobvious reasons.
“Money is a critical component,” Mr. Madonna said. “If you don’t have the money, you can’t put together an organization, and you can’t do the media promotion that you need to do.”
For the most part, Pittsburgh fundraising by Democrats matches national numbers reported by the New YorkTimes, with Mr. Sanders holding a major lead over Ms. Warren and Mr. Buttigieg in bothdonors and dollars.
There are exceptions: Former Vice President Joe Biden did significantly better in southwest Pennsylvania, and California Sen. Kamala Harris did worse. Nationally, Ms. Harris had the fourthmost donors, followed by Mr. Biden, while their positions are reversed here. Mr. Biden was born in Scranton and launched his campaign in Pittsburghin April. Mr. Biden alsohas the only endorsement from a sitting statewide Pennsylvania politician: Sen. Bob Casey endorsed the former vicepresident in April.
The polling front-runner, Mr. Biden raised $120,727 from 2,085 donors.
Rosemary Rinella, a dean’s assistant at the University of Pittsburgh, said she likes Mr. Biden because he “did a marvelous job as vice president” and “has great integrity.” She gave 24 times to Mr. Biden in thefirst half of 2019.
“‘Obamacare,’ he could build on that. ‘Obamacare’ was wonderful,” she said, referring to the Affordable Care Act health care overhaul signed into law during Mr. Biden’stime as vice president.
Of the five leading candidates, Mr. Sanders had the smallest average amount donated per donor, $40.44. Mr. Bidenhad the largest, $57.90.
“Would I rather have the money raised from small donors? Yeah, of course, but I don’t think that’s essential in the final analysis to win the campaign ,” Mr. Madonna said.
After Mr. Biden, there was a serious drop-off to Ms. Harris, who raised $65,563 from 1,490donors.
Rachel Nicholson, of Avella, has given nine times to Ms. Harris. “I’m an attorney, that’s why I’m attracted to her. She talks about saying she represents the people, and I remember the first time I stood up and said that, how I felt,”Ms. Nicholson said.
Ms. Nicholson said she’d like to see younger Democratic leadership, and she appreciates that Ms. Harris, as a woman of color, “represents the fact that our country is not a white country.”
Outside of the top tier, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke did unusually poorly locally, with fewer donors than entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who is running on creating universal basic income for every American and had the sixth-largest donor base in the region. Nationwide, Mr. O’Rourke had over 50,000 more donors than Mr. Yang.
In dollar totals, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan also performed unusually well with Pittsburghers, pulling in over $20,000, almost all from seven donors who gave the maximum allowed, $2,800. Mr. Ryan is relatively local — he represents Youngstown.