In all, more than 1.3 million individuals have donated to the campaign, according to spokesman Michael Briggs. Hillary Clinton's campaign has said it has received donations from "hundreds of thousands" of people.

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Jeff Weaver, Sanders's campaign manager, said that they are on pace to beat Clinton's goal of raising $50 million in the first quarter of the year.

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“Working Americans chipping in a few dollars each month are not only challenging but beating the greatest fundraising machine ever assembled," he said in statement.

Sanders came close to matching Clinton's fundraising haul in the last three months of 2015, raising $33.6 million to her $37 million.

The Sanders campaign also said in its news release that he has "refused to coordinate with a super PAC, which Clinton and other candidates have used to take unlimited contributions from millionaires and billionaires."

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However, the senator from Vermont does have a network of independent groups supporting him, including a super PAC financed by National Nurses United, which reported raising $2.2 million in the last half of 2015 and spending $1.3 million. The super PAC is financed by both mandatory and voluntary dues paid by its 185,000 members, officials told The Washington Post.

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Among its expenditures was $245,000 it gave to the liberal super PAC Progressive Kick. Of that, $45,000 was allocated to People for Bernie, a grassroots effort to promote Sanders through social media, The Post previously reported. The nurses' super PAC also gave $150,000 to Reclaim Chicago, an organization mobilizing community leaders to support the senator.

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