The Commentary

This week, the biggest story in the Democratic primary was money. The Democratic candidates have filed their second-quarter reports, and, to put it mildly, some candidates raised more than others.

South Bend, Ind., Mayor/wunderkind Pete Buttigieg came in first, raising a whopping $24.8 million. Money is obviously an advantage in a potentially long slog such as this primary, but we shouldn’t over-read Mayor Pete’s haul. He’s been building a base of wealthier, white Democrats — a group that can afford to donate a lot — and he’ll need to expand beyond that to get votes and not just cash.

AD

AD

The other top-tier candidates — Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala D. Harris — all performed reasonably well, with $21.5 million, $19.1 million, $18 million and $12 million raised, respectively. Harris’s numbers are a little underwhelming, but there are no enormous red flags for the leading candidates in this data.

But the news was worse for the rest of the field. Beto O’Rourke, who was touted as a record-setting fundraiser and Democratic golden boy earlier this year, brought in only $3.6 million. None of the second-tier candidates had amazing fundraising numbers, but O’Rourke way undershot expectations. This meager haul, combined with his lagging poll numbers and his lackluster debate performance, sort of makes him look like the off-brand Buttigieg.

But the story isn’t over for any of these candidates. CNN has officially announced that it will have two full stages at the debates at the end of this month. There’s still more than enough time for good fundraisers to fall and bad fundraisers to change their fortunes.

AD

AD

— David Byler

The Ranking

Position Position Challenger Change Over Last Ranking 1. 1. Joe Biden — 2. 2. Kamala D. Harris — 3. 3. Elizabeth Warren — 4. 4. Pete Buttigieg UP 1 5. 5. Bernie Sanders DOWN 1 6. 6. Cory Booker — 7. 7. Amy Klobuchar — 8. 8. Beto O’Rourke — 9. 9. Julián Castro — 10. 10. Michael Bennet — 11. 11. Tom Steyer ADDS TO RANKING 12. 12. Tim Ryan DOWN 1 13. 13. Seth Moulton DOWN 1 14. (TIE) 14. (TIE) Jay Inslee DOWN 1 14. (TIE) 14. (TIE) Andrew Yang RETURNS TO RANKING

Falls off ranking: Stacey Abrams, Tulsi Gabbard

Also receiving votes: Abrams, Gabbard, John Delaney, Marianne Williamson

Don’t forget to click on the yellow highlighted text above to expand the Ranking Committee’s annotations. Agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments. We’ll see you for the next ranking. Until then, good luck raising more than others.