It’s official: Joe Biden won the “first 24 hours” fundraising competition with $6.3 million in donations, more than that of Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke:

I asked: the @JoeBiden $6.3M in first 24 hours does not include general election contributions, per campaign. — Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 26, 2019

It doesn’t look he’ll have any problems raising money:

Biden says he raised $6.3M in first 24 hours – $200k more than Beto O'Rourke, and $400k more than Bernie Sanders did in theirs. And that's w/o as much online fundraising. This means he's raised more than anyone in the field aside from Sanders, Harris, O'Rourke & Buttigieg. — Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) April 26, 2019

The $6.3 million was from a whopping 96,926 donors:

NEW: Joe Biden's camp says he raised $6.3 million in the first 24 hours in the race, topping all other candidates. 96,926 donors. Closest competition: Bernie Sanders raised $5.9, Beto O'Rourke raised $6.1 (including some general elect $) pic.twitter.com/JQ3wCZA2OS — Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) April 26, 2019

Unlike Beto, Biden didn’t lump this total in with money raised for the general election:

This is important -> Taking general election money lets you double the amount you can take from max-out donors, even though you can't spend it. Beto O'Rourke did this to juice his one-day total a bit. https://t.co/sSCCz7i8hf — Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) April 26, 2019

And it looks like it’s time to call Biden the frontrunner:

Joe Biden did indeed "crush it", raising $6.3m in his first 24 hours — making him the frontrunner in 1) cash as well as

2) polls

3) endorsements

4) buzz pic.twitter.com/zPd4gGSOpg — Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) April 26, 2019

He even got the coveted nod from the Washington Post’s true conservative blogger, Jennifer Rubin:

Pundits don’t appreciate how warmly a lot of Americans feel toward him. It is rare these day and no small thing — Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) April 26, 2019

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