Elizabeth Warren. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Senator Elizabeth Warren was one of the first Democrats to throw her hat in the 2020 presidential election ring, announcing in December that she was forming an exploratory committee. Now, according to Reuters, Warren has hired the largest campaign staff so far in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field.

Disclosures filed with the Federal Elections Commission show that Warren spent over $1 million in payroll for the first quarter of 2019. That figure, Reuters notes, is more than twice the amount that Senators Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders spent on payroll — despite the fact that they both raised the most money during that same time period.

By the end of the first quarter, Warren’s campaign had 161 staff members, with about half of them currently positioned in primary states. Reuters points out that Sanders’s campaign had 86 people on payroll at that time, and Harris had 44. President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, meanwhile, reportedly spent around $400,000 during the first quarter — and receives help from the Republican National Committee, which has hundreds of staffers.

Reuters points out that Warren has sought to build a “grassroots” campaign, and that the campaign has been funded mostly by online donations so far, instead of relying on expensive fundraisers.

As for how much money the campaigns are operating with, Harris’s recently announced that it raised $12 million since announcing her bid in April. Sanders and former Texas representative Beto O’Rourke both reportedly raised around $6 million within 24 hours of announcing. Reuters reports that Warren raised $6 million in the first quarter of the year, though she also had an extra $10.4 million from her Senate campaign.

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