"For Pete donors, there are three levels of thinking right now,” said one Buttigieg bundler who called himself “Biden-curious.” “One, a full-throated support for Biden now, joining his national finance committee; two, supporting Biden, but not bundle for him because you're exhausted; or three, I need a minute to mourn.”

Charles Adams Jr., a fundraiser for Buttigieg’s campaign who lives in Geneva, said he was “slightly taken aback” to wake up on Monday to an email from a former Buttigieg fundraiser who had already switched her allegiance to Biden, and was sharing information on how to donate.

“I thought it would be appropriate to give it a few days” before supporting another candidate, Adams said.

Biden fundraisers are hoping his South Carolina victory represents a turning point for the campaign, which has at times struggled to raise money both online and from big-money donors, who had an array of candidates to choose from.

POLITICO NEWSLETTERS 2020 Elections Unpacking the national conventions and the race for the White House. Sign Up Loading By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Skeptics of Biden’s campaign have voiced that it needs to build a bigger organization and get-out-the-vote effort capable of capturing more delegates from Sanders — but the former vice president also needs to raise millions more in order to scale up his campaign, a case his supporters are making to donors on the fence.

“There are a number of people who could have been in the moderate lane of the party who are focused on winning in November and defeating Donald Trump. And if your priority is defeating Donald Trump, it’s time to get behind Joe,” said Denise Bauer, former ambassador to Belgium and a Biden fundraiser based in the Bay Area.

Bauer said she’s both reached out to, and heard from, friends who were donors to Buttigieg and Klobuchar since they dropped out of the race. “Obviously we would love to have them supporting Joe,” Bauer said.

Buttigieg, who started the election with a much smaller national network than Biden, regularly raised more money than him throughout 2019 thanks to both a dedicated group of online donors and zealous big-money fundraisers. Some of them had never done significant political fundraising before but were inspired by Buttigieg’s campaign and his message of generational change.

During the final stretch of his campaign, Buttigieg’s fundraising started to slow: He started February with less than $7 million in his campaign bank account, roughly the same as Biden and less money than Sanders, who has built out a massive small-dollar donor list that raised $45 million in February, the campaign said.

Biden’s campaign raised more than $11 million during the 48 hours after his victory in South Carolina, entirely online.

The wave of endorsements and consolidation of support around Biden will further help his fundraising take off, supporters hope.

“People are coming to the profound realization that Joe Biden should be the next president,” said Rufus Gifford, former finance director for Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign and a fundraiser for Biden. “For the most part, people understand this isn’t a time to sit on the sidelines.”