Warren campaign earns 1 million donations
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has received 1 million donations to her campaign for president, her team said Friday, making her the only Democratic candidate aside from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to announce reaching that threshold in the 2020 cycle.
The milestone further solidifies Warren’s standing as a top fundraiser after a slow first three months in the presidential race, during which she raised just $6 million. Despite having sworn off private fundraisers, Warren raised $19.2 million in the second quarter, placing her behind only Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and former Vice President Joe Biden during that period.
Warren posted a video Friday that showed her calling the supporter who made the millionth contribution. “I’m calling to say a double woohoo thank you!” she said.
In an email sent to supporters, Warren’s campaign manager, Roger Lau, described her presidential bid as a “100 percent peoplepowered campaign.”
“This is exciting proof of the momentum that we see on the ground across the country,” he wrote. “Powerful special interests and other campaigns are watching to see how ready we are to fight for big, structural change.”
Sanders announced that he had crossed the milliondonation threshold in April, and his campaign said Friday that it had reached 2 million donations July 11. Through the end of June, he had raised about $36 million this cycle, more than Warren’s $25 million total. But his haul in the second quarter, $18 million, was slightly less than Warren’s in that period.
Attracting small donations from a large number of individuals has taken on even greater importance this cycle as the Democratic National Committee has made grassroots fundraising a qualification standard for the debates. To earn a spot on the debate stage in September, candidates must have received donations from at least 130,000 unique contributors, a bar that, as of Friday morning, only eight of the 24 candidates had met, according to a New York Times analysis.