Beto O'Rourke made fun of urgent, sky-is-falling, end-of-quarter fundraising pitches from his fellow 2020 Democrats by joking about threatening the life of a kitten.

"I am starting to run out of ways to show how important this deadline is," the former Texas congressman wrote in an email to supporters on Saturday with the subject line "Miss Whiskers." "Maybe I could do a Facebook live stream with a kitten in hand and say, 'You know, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to this kitten now would we… Send your $5 now and Miss Whiskers will be fine.'

"To be clear, we’re not planning on harming any kittens," O'Rourke clarified. "But we do need your help."

O'Rourke bought up the same joke hypothetical at the Texas Tribune's TribFest in Austin on Saturday, referencing fundraising pitches from his presidential primary rivals New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Housing Secretary Julián Castro. Booker has warned that he will drop out of the race if he does not meet his $1.7 million goal, and Castro said that he could drop out if he does not meet the qualification standards for the November Democratic presidential primary debate.

"Saying, 'Hey, if you do not give me $1.7 million, I'm leaving the race.' Or, 'If I don't qualify for this next debate stage, I'm gone.' You know, it's kind of raising the ante, or the bar, for how we compete for these dollars," O'Rourke said. "I could maybe do a Facebook live stream with a kitten and say, you know, 'Now, we don't want anything to happen to the kitten.'"



Campaigns are really upping the ante for End of Quarter fundraising. I could do a Facebook Live with a kitten and say, "We don't want anything to happen to Miss Whiskers so send your $5." I'm not gonna do that, but if you want to donate, here's a link: https://t.co/5Qz24HzZwN pic.twitter.com/otBcHuyTu9 — Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 28, 2019



O'Rourke raised a then-record $ 6.1 million in the first 24 hours following his campaign launch in March, which Biden surpassed in late April. But O'Rourke's fundraising dropped out significantly in the second quarter of the year, raising $ 3.6 million from April though the end of June.

Monday marks the end of the third fundraising quarter of the year. Campaigns will report their fundraising hauls to the Federal Election Commission, and their hauls will be an indication of the viability of their campaigns.

In addition to three children, the O'Rourke household has many pets, including two Labrador retrievers Artemis and Rosie, a cat named Silver, and a turtle named Gus.