Bernie Sanders Leads Democratic Rivals in Fundraising with $18 Million

Bernie Sanders' campaign, one of the Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential election, announced on Tuesday that it raised $18.2 million in the first quarter of this year, thus leading in fundraising among other Democratic candidates. According to Reuters, Mr. Sanders, a senator from Vermont who is running for the Democratic nomination for the second time, received about 900,000 donations from 525,000 individual donors, most of whom are under 39 years old. The average donation was $20. According to Sanders' campaign manager, about 20% of these donors are new supporters. Bernie Sanders also participated in the Democratic primaries for the 2016 presidential election but lost to Hillary Clinton. The amount of fundraising and the number of donors are considered indicators of support for candidates in the early stages of the competition. Sanders is ahead of two other Democratic candidates who have announced their fundraising totals so far. Kamala Harris, the Democratic senator from California, has raised about $12 million, and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of a city in Indiana, has raised $7 million. Among the numerous Democratic candidates challenging Donald Trump in the 2020 election, others have also shown significant fundraising capabilities. One of them is Beto O'Rourke, a former congressman from Texas, who raised over $6 million on the first day of his campaign last month. Reuters adds that according to the law, all candidates must register all donations and their sources and report what has been raised in the first quarter by April 15. Candidates in the primary elections cannot receive more than $2,800 from an individual or entity. Officials from Bernie Sanders' campaign stated that the donations in the first quarter came from all 50 states in the U.S., allowing him to increase the number of staff and the scope of his campaign activities during the first party caucuses, which will begin in Iowa next February. One of Mr. Sanders' senior advisors said, 'With the financial resources we have raised, we will be able to compete in all those states in early March next year.'