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The total, which represents O’Rourke’s fundraising haul for the first quarter of the year, is smaller than the first-quarter numbers of two rivals, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California. But O’Rourke only joined the presidential race in mid-March.
O’Rourke, who proved to be an extraordinary online fundraiser during his unsuccessful run for Senate last year, received 218,000 contributions, with an average donation of $43, his campaign said.
It also said that a majority of donors to his presidential bid had not donated to his Senate campaign. O’Rourke raised roughly $80 million for his race against Sen. Ted Cruz, an eye-popping total that created high expectations for his fundraising as a presidential candidate.
After entering the 2020 race, O’Rourke offered early evidence of his fundraising power: His campaign said he had received $6.1 million in the first 24 hours of his bid, more than any other Democratic presidential candidate had announced raising in his or her first day. Sanders had previously been atop the pack, at $5.9 million in 24 hours.
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That huge first day made up a majority of O’Rourke’s fundraising in the first quarter. Sanders went on to reach a total of $10 million raised within a week of announcing his campaign, his team said, a threshold that O’Rourke did not meet in 18 days.
“There are tremendous expectations for him given his 2018 performance, but he’s now swimming in a much more crowded pond than he was in 2018,” said Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report. “And so I think that is going to be something to be watching for over the course of these next few months.”
O’Rourke’s campaign said 98 percent of the contributions it received were below $200. The campaign did not say how much cash it currently has.
“Not only is this a sign of our grassroots strength during the first two weeks of our campaign,” O’Rourke said of his fundraising in a statement, “but it is a sign of what’s possible when you put your full trust in the people of this country.”
Presidential candidates must disclose their first-quarter fundraising by April 15, but some campaigns decide to make their numbers public before that deadline.
Sanders’ campaign said Tuesday that he had raised $18.2 million over six weeks, and Harris’ campaign said Monday that she had raised $12 million since joining the race in January. Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said Monday that he had raised more than $7 million since January.
The early fundraising totals put Sanders and O’Rourke in their own class when it comes to bringing in money from grassroots donors. Sanders’ campaign said he had not held any fundraising events. O’Rourke’s campaign said 99 percent of his fundraising came from online donations, and that he had not held a fundraiser since entering the race.
Harris, on the other hand, has a strong network of small donors, but she has also aggressively courted large donors. Her campaign said more than $6 million of her $12 million total came from the campaign’s digital program, which includes fundraising efforts like email solicitations.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.