It's an aggressive pace: Buttigieg would have to raise more than $1 million a day before Super Tuesday to hit the goal.

Buttigieg's campaign raised just over $6 million in January, but he spent more than $14 million in the same month, draining his campaign account to just $6.6 million in the bank by the start of February, according to campaign finance disclosures filed Thursday. In his campaign email, Buttigieg revealed that he has raised $11 million so far in February, after he finished in the top two in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

The fundraising plea is an acknowledgment of how sharply the last two months of the 2020 campaign have separated a few well-funded campaigns from others scraping to survive after emptying their campaign accounts in the first four states. But in two weeks, the race widens from small early states to a 14-state, coast-to-coast blowout on Super Tuesday.

Sanders, who raised $25 million in January, and especially billionaires Bloomberg and Tom Steyer are already pouring millions of dollars into advertising in expensive California and Texas, the biggest Super Tuesday prizes — but no other candidates have been able to join them on the airwaves there so far.

Amy Klobuchar’s campaign announced Thursday that it would begin a seven-figure ad buy across seven smaller Super Tuesday states, while Elizabeth Warren has aired ads in Colorado and Maine. But Buttigieg has yet to begin running TV spots in the Super Tuesday states, though he has put up digital ads in some of them.

This is not the first time Buttigieg — or other 2020 rivals — have set a public fundraising goal to gin up enthusiasm and pry open supporters’ wallets. But it’s the largest ask yet from Buttigieg, who didn't get to ride the traditional wave of momentum, following long-delayed results out of Iowa, that would have come from his top-two finish there. (The Iowa Democratic Party is now conducting a recount of the Feb. 3 caucus results, after a recanvass showed Buttigieg with a state delegate lead over Sanders amounting to less than a hundredth of a percentage point.)

Warren is also making explicit fundraising appeals drafting off of her strong debate performance in Las Vegas. Her campaign announced Thursday that it raised more than $5 million in the hours following Wednesday's debate.

Meanwhile, Buttigieg’s campaign released a memo Thursday morning, accusing Bloomberg of propelling Sanders toward the Democratic nomination.

"If Bloomberg remains in the race despite showing he can not offer a viable alternative to Bernie Sanders, he will propel Sanders to a seemingly insurmountable delegate lead siphoning votes away from Pete, the current leader in delegates," the memo reads.

Bloomberg's campaign released a memo of its own on Wednesday calling on other candidates, including Buttigieg, to drop out of the race in order to deny Sanders the nomination.

Heavy ad spending is paying off so far for Bloomberg, who climbed into contention in a range of Super Tuesday states in recent weeks, according to a series of public polls released this week. Buttigieg, meanwhile, often lands in fourth or fifth place, behind Sanders, Bloomberg and Joe Biden.

Since the start of the Democratic primary, Buttigieg has risen from a total unknown with a 24,000-person email list to a fundraising juggernaut who outraised several sitting governors and senators and other top-tier candidates. But Buttigieg spent more than $15 million on TV ads in the first four early states, requiring him to quickly replenish his coffers.

Buttigieg is sprinting through high-dollar fundraisers — at least 10 over the next two weeks — to pick up more checks, too. But that requires Buttigieg to step off the campaign trail, while Sanders and Bloomberg are stocking their schedules with campaign stops in Super Tuesday states in addition to stumping in Nevada.

In his email appeal, Buttigieg set out his campaign's stakes. "We are the best shot at defeating Donald Trump," Buttigieg writes in the email. "But the reality is, if we can’t raise $13 million before Super Tuesday, we might never get that shot.