Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who is one of 23 Democrats running for his party’s presidential nomination in 2020, sent an email to donors on Sunday in which he warned that “we’re on a downtrend.”

The email noted that the campaign had yet to reach the 65,000-donor threshold to participate in the Democratic primary debates, which begin next month. And it added that the pace of new donations had fallen (original emphasis):

Hi friend, We’re writing to you with an urgent request. We just looked at our finances and it seems like we’re on a downtrend for this month’s fundraising numbers. So many of you have stepped up to help us reach our goal of 65,000 individual donors, but we’re not quite there. We’re working hard to get to the debate stage and beyond.

The email went on to ask readers to donate to the campaign at a special link.

It is not uncommon for candidates or party leaders to raise money by sending emails with panicked headlines to supporters. However, Swalwell’s fundraising email seems particularly odd, since it suggests not only a sense of urgency but a lack of momentum.

Swalwell, who chairs the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has been one of the leaders in the effort to link President Donald Trump to Russia. The collapse of the Russia collusion narrative, following Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, has taken some of the energy and urgency out of his campaign.

He aroused controversy earlier this year when he appeared to suggest jailing gun owners who might refuse to obey proposed future restrictions on firearms.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.