As Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton continue to spar over fossil fuel donations, The Hill reports Saturday that Sanders’ $44 million March haul “has broken new ground for online political fundraising.”
The Sanders campaign announced Friday that it raised more money in March than it did during its record-breaking February. The Democratic presidential hopeful has now received 6.5 million contributions from 2 million donors. Of the $184 million total raised by his campaign so far, 97 percent was given online. The average contribution is just $27.
Reporter Jonathan Swan writes: “His record-breaking sums come in spite of the fact that Sanders relies on small-dollar donors instead of well-financed millionaires and associated super-PACs and does not have a traditional finance team.”
According to The Hill‘s analysis of FEC filings, Clinton “has raised only 18 percent of her money from donors giving less than $200, giving her a narrower fundraising base than Sanders. Sanders’s campaign has raised 66 percent of its money from donors giving less than $200.”
Notably, the senator from Vermont “has managed to raise these sums while being nearly 300 pledged delegates behind Clinton and more than 700 behind if superdelegates—party leaders who can choose whichever candidate they want—are counted.”
The money allows to Sanders to follow through on his vow to keep fighting all the way until the convention.
Sanders’ chief strategist told The Hill that millions of people bought into the Sanders campaign “not so much because they were betting on Bernie winning. They were investing in him because they believed in him. They believed in what he stood for, and they want to express that support not only by voting for him but by contributing to him on a continuous basis.”
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