Hillary Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook sounded a note of alarm in a fundraising email to supporters on Friday, lamenting the fact that small donors have not stepped up the way the campaign thought they would. | Getty Clinton camp tries to wake up supporters on anti-Trump fundraising

With Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump running neck and neck in national polls, the former secretary of state is trying to use the prospect of a tight general election battle to replenish her war chest.

Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, sounded a note of alarm in a fundraising email to supporters on Friday, lamenting the fact that small donors have not stepped up the way the campaign thought they would in the face of a matchup with Trump.


In an email with the subject line, “I’m personally asking you to help,” Mook wrote that over the past several months, the Clinton team gamed out various scenarios involving the presumptive GOP nominee whom the Democratic front-runner will likely face in the general election.

“One assumption seemed pretty safe: That if we were to wind up running against Donald Trump, our supporters, especially our grassroots donors, would be so horrified that they’d step up big time. It’s now been three weeks since Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and the fact is that isn’t happening yet,” Mook wrote. “So I need you to chip in right now — and yes, we’ll send you a free sticker when you do.”

The email comes as Clinton has failed to lock up the Democratic nomination and faces renewed scrutiny over the personal email server she used for official business at the State Department after the agency’s inspector general concluded that she did not abide by State’s rules.

“Don’t get me wrong — you’ve been amazing,” Mook continued. “You’re the only reason that Hillary Clinton is on the verge of making history. And I have no doubt that many of you are planning to get involved later on, or may be working hard in ways that aren’t always visible to the campaign.”

Fundraising is “actually DOWN slightly” from this point in April, Mook noted. “I don’t know if it’s that you think we don’t need the money yet (we do), or that Trump couldn’t possibly win (he really, really could), or if you’re just exhausted from a long primary (I don't blame you!) — but whatever your reasons are,” Mook concluded. “I am personally asking you to get up off the bench and help make sure the most extreme, erratic presidential nominee in history never makes it to the White House.”

Clinton’s campaign entered May with nearly $30 million in the bank, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, while the main super PAC supporting her came into the month with $46.7 million on hand.

Clinton’s campaign continued its general election focus on Friday morning, tweeting a video of Trump, which it billed as the “first in a new series,” describing pregnancy as “an inconvenience for a business.”

The first in a new series: a message from your potential next president—on pregnancy.https://t.co/LmUZI20JCo — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 27, 2016



