WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker’s presidential run is short of money and needs to raise another $1.7 million by the end of the month if he is going to have a chance of winning the nomination, his campaign manager said Saturday.

Addisu Demissie said the Booker campaign won’t be able to continue without the money needed to expand its operations in the early primary and caucus states. He said the campaign has to raise $1.7 million by Sept. 30, the end of the fundraising period.

“You need to build in October and November in order to win the nomination,” Demissie said on a conference call with reporters. “Without money we cannot build, and without building we cannot win.”

Demissie made the same plea in a memo to supporters earlier in the day.

“We have reached a critical moment, and time is running out,” Demissie said. “It’s now or never: The next 10 days will determine whether Cory Booker can stay in this race and compete to win the nomination.”

“Without a fundraising surge to close out this quarter, we do not see a legitimate long-term path forward,” Demissie said in the memo.

If you’re all in for me, I can't thank you enough. But if you haven’t settled on a candidate & still think my voice belongs in this race, if you believe the Democratic field should include someone like me, I want you to understand the field may narrow & pay attention to this too. — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 21, 2019

Booker has been unable to climb above 2 or 3 percent in opinion polls, but Demissie dismissed the significance of those surveys.

“National polls mean literally nothing,” he said. “The reality is the people closest to this election are supporting Cory disproportionately. I dispute the idea that we’re not catching on.”

He pointed out that only 9 percent of likely Democratic voters in the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll said they had firmly settled on a candidate. But those voters may never get a chance to cast their ballots for Booker if he can’t raise the funds now to stay in the race, he said.

“The final field that is going to be offered to the Democratic Party come February, March and later beyond is being determined right now,” Demissie said. “Most voters are not paying attention to this race and they’re thinking they will have choices they’re not going to have.”

Demissie said only four candidates so far have the resources to build an organization needed to win the nomination, the four who have raised the most money to date. They are former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

“I’ll be blunt: We aren’t among them today, but with your help, we can be,” Demissie said in the memo. “Cory 2020 has the resources necessary to continue on as we are now for quite some time, but that is not enough.”

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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