Small dollar revolution helps Sanders close money gap with Hillary Clinton

Fredreka Schouten | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders harnessed online donations from legions of contributors during the last three months to challenge one of Hillary Clinton’s core strengths: her fundraising dominance over the Democratic presidential field.

The Vermont senator's reliance on small donors has only left him room to grow in the months ahead.

The Democratic front-runner narrowly beat Sanders in the chase for political money, raising $28 million to Sanders’ $26 million during the July-to-September fundraising quarter.

But Clinton worked aggressively for those dollars, holding 58 fundraising events in the last three months to help raise much of that sum. This week alone, Clinton crisscrossed the country to headline six donor events in California, North Carolina and New York, where attendees contributed between $1,000 and $2,700 apiece.

Sanders has hosted just seven fundraising events since he entered the race at the end of April, his aides say.

Instead, he has relied on smaller donations, collecting more than 1.3 million in online contributions, exceeding a pace set by President Obama in his 2008 bid. In all, he's drawn contributions from 650,000 individuals, most of whom have not hit the $2,700 donation cap, his campaign said. Clinton's campaign has not released details on her total number of donors.

Preliminary figures released Thursday indicate Clinton also is burning through cash at a faster rate than Sanders. Clinton already has spent millions on television ads. Sanders has not run a single TV commercial.

"Bernie has financial staying power,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said in a statement Thursday. “We have the financial wherewithal that will allow for a major campaign through Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and beyond in state-by-state, delegate-by-delegate contests for the Democratic Party nomination.”



Sanders’ fundraising haul demonstrates the grass-roots strength of his populist campaign and the challenge it poses to Clinton, a former first lady and secretary of State who has spent decades in public life. Sanders is surging in early state polling and drawing enthusiastic crowds to his mega-rallies. It's no guarantee he can sustain the pace nor prevail with voters.

Republican Rick Perry in 2011 and Democrat Howard Dean in 2003 are among the presidential candidates who had breakout fundraising performances in the year before the election but faltered in the nomination battle.

Even so, "Sanders' campaign clearly is doing a good job of converting these large crowds into the campaign infrastructure," said Anthony Corrado, an election expert at Colby College in Maine. Clinton's strategy of using relatively high-dollar fundraising events to collect political cash takes its toll, he said.

"When you do events where people pay $2,700, they expect to see the candidate," Corrado said.

Sanders' ability to tap into social media to turn on the fundraising spigot was on display as the third-quarter fundraising deadline approached Wednesday.

Sanders took to Twitter to implore his backers to “send an unmistakable message about the size and strength of our campaign."

Sanders' aides initially announced a $24 million haul late Wednesday, but his supporters appeared to be spurred on by news they were just a few million dollars short of Clinton's haul. Sanders' spokesman Michael Briggs said the campaign raised more than $2 million on Wednesday with more than $171,000 collected between 11 p.m. and midnight.

In an interview Thursday morning with the On Point call-in radio show, Sanders said he's gaining ground because "the American people are sick and tired of seeing the middle class continue to decline." He called his campaign a "political revolution."

Clinton’s third-quarter total represents a sharp drop from the record $47.5 million she raised during the previous three months, reflecting, in part, a traditional summer fundraising slowdown. The possibility of Vice President Biden making a late-breaking bid for the nomination also has roiled the Democratic fundraising world.

Aides say the roughly $75 million she has raised so far puts her on track to reach a long-standing goal of collecting $100 million by year’s end. Her third-quarter haul, they note, was the largest for a non-incumbent in the year before a presidential contest.

“Thanks to our supporters, we are able to meet our goals and build an organization that can mobilize millions of voters to ensure Hillary Clinton is their fighter in the White House,” campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement.

In all, Sanders has raised about $41 million this year.

Clinton does have other financial advantages. Clinton ended September with larger cash reserves than Sanders, $32 million to his $26.5 million. In addition, a super PAC backing Clinton's campaign previously announced it had secured $25 million in pledges since July 1. Super PACs can accept unlimited donations from virtually any source but largely must avoid coordinating with campaigns.

Sanders, who rails against the influence of big money in politics, has rejected any help from super PACs.

Only two Republican contender have released fundraising totals so far. Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, another insurgent rising in the polls, said he raised $20 million during the third quarter, nearly double the amount he collected during the previous three months.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul raised about $2.5 million, a drop from the nearly $7 million he collected during the April-to-June fundraising quarter.

Contributing: Nicole Gaudiano