While Bernie Sanders still raised far more than Hillary Clinton from small donors in April, his overall fundraising dropped substantially from the previous two months. | AP Photo Sanders outraised Clinton in April after all New FEC reports contradict earlier claims, but also show Clinton building towards the general election.

Hillary Clinton entered this month with a healthy $30 million in the bank, but her campaign did not take in more money than Bernie Sanders' in April, contradicting earlier assessments and calling into question suggestions that her fundraising had overtaken his small-dollar fundraising juggernaut.

Clinton’s main campaign committee directly received $25.1 million last month, compared with $26.9 million raised by Sanders’ campaign, according to reports filed Friday afternoon with the Federal Election Commission.


Sanders’ actual tally is slightly more than his campaign indicated earlier this month, when it put out a news release boasting of raising $25.8 million. A Sanders campaign source said the discrepancy resulted from the challenges of tallying huge numbers of small donations.

Meanwhile, Clinton’s tally is slightly less than the $26.4 million that her campaign touted earlier this month. The discrepancy in her fundraising figures arises from the accounting techniques of a joint committee called the Hillary Victory Fund that her campaign formed with the Democratic National Committee and 32 state parties. In addition to the $4 million transferred by the Hillary Victory Fund to Clinton’s campaign committee, Clinton’s aides counted toward its April tally $1.8 million in expenses paid out by the fund for the Clinton campaign’s share of joint fundraising costs.

Those funds were spent on behalf of her campaign, even though the money that paid for them was never transferred to the campaign, the Clinton campaign says. It has been assessing its finances that way since the formation of the victory fund last year, a spokesman said, rejecting a suggestion that it’s an effort to pad its bottom line.

But in April, the higher tally that resulted from the accounting method led to a slew of headlines, including in POLITICO, about Clinton outraising Sanders for the first time, which was seen as significant since Sanders’ small-dollar online fundraising prowess has been a key advantage over Clinton.

While Sanders still raised much more than Clinton from small donors in April ($11 million to $5.5 million), his overall fundraising dropped substantially from the previous two months, as Clinton closed in on the Democratic Party nomination.

Clinton’s campaign appeared to be preparing for the general election, spending far less than Sanders. She dropped $23.9 million in April, compared with $38.6 million for him. Sanders spent almost twice as much on media and payroll (despite a slightly smaller staff), as well as more on online advertising and direct mail.

As a result, Sanders entered this month with only $5.8 million in the bank, much less than Clinton’s $30 million.

Clinton also made slight inroads with small donors who have favored her rival: 22 percent of the contributions to the campaign in April were in amounts less than $200, compared with 19 percent across the cycle. About 17 percent of her total income came from donors who hit the $2,700 limit and can't give again.

And Clinton's campaign raised an additional $9.5 million for various Democratic Party committees through the victory fund, though it has been criticized for purporting to help rebuild state parties while actually funneling cash to the DNC. The state parties in South Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee reported receiving $176,000 each from the victory fund on April 25 but transferring the same amount to the DNC on the same day, continuing an earlier pattern of shuffling funds. The Georgia Democrats transferred $176,000 to the DNC.

Sanders also has a joint fundraising committee but hasn't used it much.

