President Donald Trump’s massive fundraising operation makes him a formidable candidate in the 2020 race for the presidency, and new campaign finance reports out this week from the Democrats hoping to oust him underscore their grueling task ahead.
Some key takeaways from the first-quarter fundraising reports:
Bernie Sanders leads the pack for Democrats
Here’s who is winning small donors:
Who has the most money in the bank?
Cory Booker showed underwhelming small dollar support relative to the rest of the 2020 Democratic field in his first quarter fundraising report, with about 16% of his $5 million haul coming from contributions of $200 or less.
That’s comparable to one of the New Jersey Democrat’s Senate colleagues, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who also received about 16% of her funds from those small dollar donations, but far behind other peers like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (84%) and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (70%).
In addition to raising $5 million in the quarter, Booker transferred $2.7 million from his Senate campaign account to his presidential campaign, giving him over $6.1 million cash on hand going forward in the White House race, and leaving just over $100,000 in his Senate account.
Booker’s campaign spent just under $1.8 million after his Feb. 1 entry to the race, mostly on payroll and salary, about $700,000, and digital consulting services, about $530,000.
Among Booker’s notable contributors: actress and girlfriend Rosario Dawson, who gave $2,068 to his presidential campaign in the quarter.
Beto O’Rourke’s 2020 campaign spent just over $2.5 million in the first quarter, according to his report filed Monday. About half of that, $1.27 million, went to digital advertising, the campaign’s top expenditure, and the campaign also spent $344,700 on database services.
The former Texas congressman posted strong fundraising numbers in the first quarter of 2019, driven largely by a first-day surge, ultimately positioning him behind earlier entrants with comparable fundraising strength like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Sen. Kamala Harris, at the start of the second quarter.
O’Rourke raised just under $9.4 million in the period, with about 59% of his contributions made in increments of $200 or less. $6.1 million of that came on the day he announced his entry to the race, on March 14, leaving him just over two weeks in the period to fundraise.
His campaign said the average donation was $43, across roughly 218,000 contributions.
While O’Rourke raised an explosive $80 million for his 2018 Texas senate race, he spent essentially all of it, and didn’t enter 2019 with a base of transferable funds like those available to some of the senators in the race, such as New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Massachusetts sen. Elizabeth Warren. His campaign reported having just under $6.9 million in cash on hand entering the second quarter.
Oops.
A Florida mayor making his first bid for the presidency already has corrected his first-ever presidential campaign report.
Earlier Monday, Wayne Messam, the chief executive of Miramar, Florida, filed a fundraising report with the Federal Election Commission, showing he collected nearly $84,000 in his longshot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Turns out, that number was a little high.
He actually raised a little more than $43,500 – apparently the result of errors in accounting for some contributions processed through ActBlue, an online fundraising platform. He filed a corrected report later Monday with the lower figure.
His campaign did not immediately respond to a CNN request for more information.
Elizabeth Warren spent $1.2 million on staff in the first quarter of 2019, her largest expenditure category, while posting a $6 million fundraising haul that was likely undercut by her strict self-imposed fundraising restrictions.
In total, Warren spent nearly $5.3 million in the first three months of 2019, which included just over $1 million in internet advertising. She enters the second quarter of 2019 with just over $11.2 million in cash on hand in her presidential campaign account.
The Massachusetts senator made waves in the 2020 race with her primary fundraising pledge, part of an effort to highlight her commitment to fighting special interests. The scope of that pledge – no fundraisers, dinners, receptions or phone calls with wealthy donors – had enough of an impact to compel her finance director to resign in late March.
The effect of that decision is visible in Warren’s first quarter fundraising report. Despite an early entrance into the race – on New Year’s Eve, giving her a full three months of the quarter to fundraise – Warren’s $6 million haul lagged behind early frontrunners like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ($18.2 million) and California Sen. Kamala Harris ($12 million).
Still, Warren was able to transfer over $10.4 million to her presidential campaign from her Senate campaign account, more than any other 2020 Democrat had available to start the White House race. And Warren had one of the higher percentage of contributions under $200, comprising over 70% of her individual contributions.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will rely heavily on leftover funds from her US Senate campaign committee after a soft first quarter of fundraising for her presidential campaign, during which she raised just about $3 million.
Gillibrand transferred $9.6 million from her senate campaign account, leaving just under $650,000 there, and enters the second quarter with about $10.2 million in the account of her presidential campaign.
Just about 17% of Gillibrand’s individual contributions came from donors giving less than $200. The senator has spent over $2.4 million since her 2020 campaign launch, with nearly $840,000 going to communications consulting, the campaign’s top expenditure category.
Gillibrand’s first quarter haul lagged behind the reported totals of some of her senate colleagues – Sen. Bernie Sanders paced the field with about $18.2 million, but Gillibrand was also outperformed by: Sen. Elizabeth Warren ($6 million), Sen. Cory Booker ($5 million) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar ($5.2 million).
Still, Gillibrand had the second-most money available in her Senate campaign account at the beginning of 2019, with $10.3 million banked. She is behind only Warren, who had just over $11 million to bring to the race. That gives the New York Democrat some breathing room despite her lackluster Q1.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders set the standard for small-dollar fundraising in the first quarter, bringing in about $18.2 million from individuals, 84% of which came in contributions under $200. Sanders also transferred $2.5 million from his US Senate campaign account to his presidential campaign.
Sanders’ first quarter report reflected the grassroots fundraising strength of his 2020 presidential campaign, and he enters the second quarter with a commanding financial lead over the rest of the presidential field. His campaign previously revealed they had received over 900,000 contributions from over 525,000 unique donors – the most of any 2020 Democrat – with an average contribution of $20.
Between his 2020 presidential campaign, Senate campaign account and leftover funds from his 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders has $26.6 million of available funds with which he can fund his White House bid going forward. Earlier this month, the campaign reported it had $28 million in cash on hand. The discrepancy between the two numbers was because of late expenses and refunds, campaign spokeswoman Arianna Jones told CNN Monday.
Sanders’ first quarter report also revealed that he spent just over $5 million since entering the race. The campaign spent the most on digital advertising, a little over $1.5 million, followed by “event/sound/staging” for campaign events, totaling nearly $790,000.
Here’s an early evening snapshot of first-quarter fundraising totals,* either announced by the campaigns or filed with the Federal Election Commission:
US Sen. Kamala Harris spent more than $4.1 million, or little more than a third, of the money she raised during the first quarter of her presidential campaign on operating costs, new filings with the Federal Election Commission show.
Aided by money transferred from her Senate campaign, the Democrat started April with nearly $9 million remaining in her bank account for the grueling primary slog. At least four other Democrats – Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Maryland congressman John Delaney and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand – have announced larger cash reserves for the nomination battle.
A field of nearly 20 candidates is jockeying for the right to take on President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election.
About 37% of the money Harris raised came from donors who contributed in amounts of $200 or smaller. She started April with one outstanding bill: $65,000 owed to the Oakland Police Department for security, according to her filing with federal regulators. Harris held her kickoff rally in her hometown of Oakland in late January.
Felicity Huffman, one of the actresses ensnared in the college-admissions cheating scandal, was an early donor to Democrat Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, a new report shows.
Huffman donated $400 to the California senator’s campaign on Jan. 21, the day Harris announced, Federal Election Commission records show. Huffman had also contributed $683 to Harris’s Senate campaign in the fourth quarter of 2018; Harris transferred some of the funds from that account to her presidential campaign.
Huffman, the “Desperate Housewives” star, pleaded guilty to paying $15,000 to a fake charity associated with Rick Singer to facilitate cheating for her daughter on the SATs, the complaint says. She faces up to 20 years in prison. In exchange for Huffman’s plea, federal prosecutors will recommend incarceration at the “low end” of the sentencing range, a $20,000 fine and 12 months of supervised release. They will not bring further charges.
Among the other celebrities who gave to Harris’ presidential campaign:
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper raised $2 million during the first four weeks of his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to new filings.
Hickenlooper’s total puts him well behind the top fundraising tier and highlights the difficulty that even experienced political figures are having in breaking through the crowd of Democrats scrambling for their party’s nod in 2020.
In a news release, Hickenlooper’s campaign touted its small donors, saying that 85% of donations came in amounts smaller than $200. About half came from outside his home state.
The former Colorado governor has about $1.3 million remaining in the bank, a tiny fraction of the $28 million war chest previously announced by the field’s fundraising leader, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
His total includes some money that he only can tap for the general election. His news release said he did not actively solicit those donations, and about 97% of his money can be used for the primary.
Marianne Williamson raised a little more than $1.5 million during the first quarter of the 2020 presidential campaign, according to a Monday afternoon news release from the campaign.
Williamson, an author and activist, trails behind many of the other Democratic presidential candidates in fundraising, but she outraised a better-known figure in politics, Julián Castro. Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, announced earlier Monday that he had raised $1.1 million.
Williamson appears not have met an important target: attracting donations from 65,000 unique donors to merit a spot on the early debate stage. Her campaign said 46,663 donors contributed during the first quarter.
The Democratic National Committee has established fundraising and polling requirements for candidates to participate in the first two debates over the summer.
The campaign said Williamson had nearly $550,000 remaining in the bank.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he raised $2.25 million for his 2020 presidential campaign in the first quarter of 2019, following his March 1 entry to the race.
The campaign said that 75% of their contributions were $25 or below and 95% of donations were $100 or less, but declined to provide the average contribution size or a cash on hand figure. Those details will be available when Inslee’s complete filing is released later Monday. Inslee’s campaign also said the first quarter fundraising included about $1.97 million for the primary election funding and more than $285,000 for the general election.
The campaign has not yet received donations from 65,000 unique donors – one of the thresholds set by the Democratic National Committee for qualifying the first two primary debates this summer – but did say that they had received donations from at least 200 individuals in all 50 states, the other half of the financial requirement for debate qualification.
“This first-month fundraising shows strong grassroots momentum for Gov. Inslee’s message of defeating climate change,” said Aisling Kerins, Inslee’s campaign manager. “Jay Inslee is the only 2020 candidate who will make climate change the top priority. That clear message allowed Gov. Inslee’s upstart campaign to raise money at a faster clip than many better-known candidates.”
Julian Castro raised just $1.1 million for his presidential bid during the first quarter of the year, the Texas Democrat’s campaign said Monday – putting him near the back of the fundraising pack.
Castro, a former House and Urban Development secretary in the Obama administration, also appears seems to be faltering in meeting one key threshold to qualify for the summer’s debate stage. His campaign said he’s received contributions from 50,000 unique donors.
The Democratic National Committee has made attracting at least 65,000 donors from at least 20 states one criterion for joining the first two presidential debates. Candidates also can qualify by earning at least 1% in several public polls of Democratic voters.
Castro’s announcement of his fundraising total attempted to put the best-possible spin on a disappointing number. His aides touted a “roughly $2 million” haul – a total achieved only by adding in dollars he raised in the final weeks of 2018 and, according to Castro’s aides, more than half a million raised so far in April. Most candidates are reporting their January-to-March fundraising ahead of a midnight deadline to file their reports with the Federal Election Commission.
“We’re just getting started and are rapidly building momentum,” Castro’s campaign manager Maya Rupert said in a statement.“We met our internal goals for the first quarter, and in the first two weeks of April have smashed our fundraising goal for the month.”
Castro’s first-quarter haul lands him behind the $1.7 million collected by businessman Andrew Yang in the Democratic field.
Wayne Messam a little-known mayor of Miramar, Florida, who announced his presidential campaign in late last month, raised nearly $84,000 in the opening days of his campaign, a newly filed report shows.
Messam’s announcement came just days before the end of the fundraising quarter, so he didn’t have much time to raise campaign money.
But his haul demonstrates how hard it will be for some candidates to break out in a crowded Democratic field of nearly 20 contenders.
Better-known candidates, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, raised roughly $6 million apiece in the opening days of their presidential bids.
Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat whom advisers say is inching closer to a 2020 presidential run, raised $255,017 in the first quarter, and ended the period with $722,801 in his House campaign account. That’s money he’ll be able to transfer to a presidential campaign account, should he get into the race – though it’s significantly less seed money than some of Moulton’s potential rivals from the Senate brought to the race, like Elizabeth Warren ($11 million), Kirsten Gillibrand ($10 million) and Bernie Sanders ($9 million).
Moulton has signaled that he may soon join the large and growing field of Democrats running for the presidency in 2020. An adviser to the congressman, who requested anonymity to speak frankly, said the Democrat has moved closer to a bid in recent weeks and will decide on running by the end of April. The Massachusetts Democrat has begun reaching out to potential donors who could back a longshot 2020 bid, the source said.
So far this year, Moulton has made trips to South Carolina, North Carolina and New Hampshire, all of which are key states in the upcoming Democratic primary.
James Murdoch, the son of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, donated $2,800 to Democrat Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, a newly filed report shows.
Murdoch’s contribution on March 12 underscores the attention Buttigieg’s come-from-behind presidential campaign is drawing from big-name figures from the worlds of media, finance and the arts.
The Federal Election Commission filing is sprinkled with other bold-faced names who donated to Buttigieg in the first months of his campaign. They include:
The Murdoch empire includes some of the nation’s most influential conservative outlets, including Fox News.
However, James Murdoch, viewed as more politically moderate than his father, struck out on his own last year and has founded an investment firm, Lupa Systems.
Reports will roll in throughout the day. But based on early numbers from Democratic candidates, the cash on hand picture now looks like this:
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg formally kicked off his presidential campaign Sunday in his hometown, but he began raising money for his exploratory committee back in January.
His first-quarter report landed Monday morning with the Federal Election Commission and confirms that Buttigieg, who was a little-known figure before last month, had a better-than-expected fundraising performance. He raised just shy of $7.1 million and spent a little more than $685,000 – showing he is conserving his resources for the long primary battle ahead.
Nearly two-thirds of his money – 64% – came from donors who contribute in amounts of $200 or less, giving him a pool of people who can donate repeatedly without hitting contribution limits.
He started April with $6.4 million remaining in the bank – a number that puts him ahead of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who previously announced having $6.1 million still available.
Trump’s re-election campaign raised more than $30 million in the first fundraising quarter of 2019 – an amount that rivals the combined fundraising haul of the top two Democrats in the first quarter and underscores his enormous financial head start over the crowded field of Democrats jockeying to face him in 2020.
Trump’s re-election effort now has a substantial $40.8 million remaining in the bank, Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s director of communications, told CNN on Sunday. While Trump builds a massive war chest, 18 Democrats – with more considering bids – are competing for their party’s nomination.
According to the campaign, 98.79% of first quarter contributions and the joint committees were $200 or less. The average donation was $34.26.
