They are up against a highly organized machine, including the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign, which has been up and running for more than a year to reelect Trump from its headquarters in Rosslyn, Va. Some Democrats have feared their nominee will never be able to catch up to Trump’s massive head start.

Several leading candidates announced their total fundraising for October through the end of December this week: In addition to Sanders, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised $24.7 million, former Vice President Joe Biden brought in $22.7 million, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised $21.2 million and Andrew Yang raised $16.5 million.

Altogether, the 11 Democratic candidates who are not self-funding their campaigns and the DNC combined to raise more than $480.8 million in 2019. That’s more than Trump and his allied committees, including the RNC, which brought in $463.6 million in 2019. (Some organizations, like the DNC, have not yet self-reported their latest fundraising totals, and they won't file official reports on their fundraising until the end of January.)

The candidates are using the cash to build armies of field staff and air television ads in Iowa, New Hampshire, and a slew of other states that will soon begin voting. In a memo sent to donors on Thursday, Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz said the campaign had spent $5.2 million on “our tech and digital infrastructure” alone since its April launch, which the campaign has used to work on its small-dollar fundraising and build up its reach on social media.

But their fundraising hauls are also an indicator of who is building momentum with Democratic voters. The small-dollar donations to Democratic House candidates in 2018 were an early sign of the wave that flipped the chamber last November. Now, Democrats hope the increasingly large sums raised by the candidates are a sign they can win the White House again.

The Democrats’ fundraising “says, to me, that there is out there a very strong appetite to support the Democratic nominee,” said Charles Adams, a Buttigieg donor and former U.S ambassador to Finland. “The resources will be available to that nominee to compete on even terms or better with Trump in the general election.”

Adams predicted Buttigieg’s powerhouse fundraising will not be hurt in the coming weeks by his feud with Warren, who attacked him repeatedly in December for holding a fundraiser with rich donors in an elaborate wine cave.