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Harris, a first-term senator from California, invested heavily building an online network of donors in the two years leading up to her launch, spending millions of dollars to increase the size of her email supporter list. Her campaign said more than $6 million of her fundraising — about half her total — came from her digital program, including $1.1 million in the past week.
Candidates must disclose their fundraising figures for the first quarter of 2019 by April 15, though many release them earlier in an attempt to position themselves better politically before the full report.
Harris’ campaign said she had received 218,000 contributions in total and that 98% of her contributions were less than $100. Her average donation was about $55. Her campaign did not say how much of her total those small contributions accounted for.
“A nationwide network of hundreds of thousands of grassroots supporters has stepped up to lay the foundation for a winning campaign,” said Juan Rodriguez, Harris’ campaign manager, in a statement.
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Harris has also raised money aggressively on the traditional fundraising circuit and spent the final weekend of March dashing across California, from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, to raise as much as possible before the first disclosure deadline of the 2020 race. Her campaign said only 0.55% of her individual donors gave the legal maximum of $2,800 — though that is still hundreds of contributors.
Earlier on Monday, Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced that he had raised more than $7 million in the first quarter. Buttigieg’s campaign said he had 158,550 donors who gave an average donation of $36.35. About 64% of his $7 million came from contributions of less than $200.
Neither Harris nor Buttigieg disclosed how much cash on hand their campaigns have.
On Tuesday, senior advisers to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is widely expected to post the largest fundraising haul this month, are scheduled to release his fundraising figures. In emails to supporters, Sanders’ campaign has said he had nearly 900,000 contributions in the first quarter, writing in one email that donations were “about a $20 average this time.” His average donation was $27 in 2016, suggesting he has raised somewhere between $18 million and $24 million.
Harris recently rolled out a plan to give every teacher in the United States a substantial raise, and her campaign said Monday that she has received 11,000 donations from educators.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.