Buttigieg outraises Harris in California
Mayor of small Midwestern city a relative unknown just a few months ago
Pete Buttigieg raised more money from large-dollar donors in California over the last three months than home-state Sen. Kamala Harris, fundraising reports released Monday night showed, with a flood of cash from Silicon Valley and Hollywood propelling him to the front of the presidential pack.
The Indiana mayor raised $3.75 million between April and the end of June from Californians who gave his campaign more than $200, compared with $3.18 million taken in by Harris. Campaigns aren’t required to report smaller donations individually, but Buttigieg also raised more than double the amount Harris did from lower-dollar contributions nationwide.
It’s a remarkable achievement by a mayor of a small Midwestern city who just a few months ago was a virtual unknown in California — and a sign of the excitement his campaign has been able to generate among the Golden State elite. The numbers also could be worrying for Harris supporters, although the senator saw a big spike in the last days of the fundraising period after her breakout debate performance.
Buttigieg was followed in California by Harris, former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, with the same five candidates forming the top tier in the money race nationally as well. He also raised the most from large-dollar donors in the Bay Area, a total of $1.6 million, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis.
California is considered the nation’s biggest ATM in Democratic politics, and it’s shaping up to play a similar role in the 2020 race; almost all of the candidates had San
Francisco, Los Angeles or both among the top five cities where they raised the most money. About half of Harris’ total and roughly a fourth of Buttigieg’s, Sanders’ and Warren’s hauls came from Californians.
Buttigieg has crisscrossed the state for a busy schedule of fundraisers this quarter, winning over Hollywood and LGBT donors excited about the prospect of making him the first gay president. His star-studded donor list this quarter included actors such as Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi, Frances McDormand and Leslie Odom Jr.
In the Bay Area, Buttigieg also used his longtime relationships with the tech community — he was Facebook’s 287th user as a Harvard undergraduate — to rake in Silicon Valley money from big names such as Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann, Y Combinator chair Sam Altman, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu and Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane.
Harris, meanwhile, reported donations from director Rob Reiner, actor Sean Penn, L.A. philanthropist Eli Broad and Apple executive Lisa Jackson, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
In some ways, Harris and Buttigieg have similar fundraising profiles. Unlike several of their top competitors, they’ve embarked on plenty of meetand-greets with high rollers while also snapping up large amounts of small-dollar donors online.
About 45% of Harris’ total haul and 44% of Buttigieg’s came from people who gave less than $200.
But Buttigieg raised more than twice as much as Harris nationwide between April and June and ended last month with $22.7 million in the bank, compared with $13.3 million for Harris.
Harris saw sluggish fundraising numbers for most of the quarter — until she stepped onto the debate stage in late June, challenging Biden over his record on busing and integration policies. Over the next three days, she raised roughly a fourth of the total she took in for the period, her report suggests.
In addition to the top five candidates, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker did relatively well in California, raising $710,000 from large-dollar donors, including plenty of venture capital executives and other tech figures.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, on the other hand, raised only about $221,000 in California, a lackluster performance that contributed to his disappointing national total of $3.6 million.
A large proportion of O’Rourke’s funds came from his home state of Texas, and he didn’t spend nearly as much time on the Golden State fundraising circuit as his top rivals in the race.
Buttigieg doesn’t seem likely to let up on his pace of California fundraising. He’ll be back in the Bay Area next week for multiple events, including one in Mountain View hosted by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.