There are still two weeks until Democratic candidates must file their second quarter fund-raising numbers, but Pete Buttigieg has wasted no time putting himself on the leaderboard, announcing $24.8 million in donations between the beginning of April and the end of June. In an email to supporters on Monday, the campaign said it had “more than doubled the amount of total individual donors to the campaign between Q1 and Q2,” with an average donation of $47.42. It’s also more than triple the amount Buttigieg raised last quarter, when the buzzy but still relatively unknown South Bend mayor took in $7 million—less than rivals including Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Beto O’Rourke, but still impressive for a 37-year-old without much of a national profile.

That Buttigieg is punching above his weight won’t come as a total surprise to close observers of his campaign. Since announcing his candidacy in April, Buttigieg—who is gay—has been deluged with donations from wealthy LGBT donors, who are a major fund-raising bloc. (“What is going on now is one of the untold secrets of the DNC and Democratic Party,” one gay-rights leader told my colleague Peter Hamby in April.) Hollywood power brokers have taken to Buttigieg too, maxing out donations to bolster his position. Combined with a strong grassroots operation and glowing media attention, campaign insiders predicted Buttigieg could have a blockbuster Q2.

Those suspicions are now confirmed by the FEC. According to his campaign, Buttigieg tapped 294,000 donors in the past three months, adding 230,000 new donors since April. And despite spending money on a hiring binge and a bigger headquarters in South Bend, Buttigieg still has a large chunk of cash on hand—$22.6 million, according to senior communications adviser Lis Smith.

Whether those numbers are enough to put Buttigieg ahead of Sanders or Harris remains to be seen. Buttigieg had a strong debate performance last week, and it wouldn’t be surprising if his fund-raising leapfrogged O’Rourke, who has collapsed in the polls since a solid start at the beginning of the year. The most recent RealClear polling average puts Buttigieg in fifth place, not far behind Harris—a reasonable proxy for fund-raising prowess, if not a perfect one. Sanders, who remains in second place in national polling, raised $18.2 million in Q1 from 525,000 donors, with an average donation of $20. Joe Biden, the front-runner, suggested earlier last month that he’d already raised $19 million with two weeks remaining until the close of Q2. Assuming his fund-raising didn’t drop off a cliff, he shouldn’t have any trouble clearing Buttigieg. But the fact that the two are even in the same ballpark speaks volumes.

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