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The corporate broadcast networks have virtually ignored Bernie Sanders, but that hasn’t stopped the Democratic presidential candidate from breaking President Obama’s record for most campaign contributions in a year.

The Sanders campaign announced the new record:

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During the debate, Sanders also reached a major milestone in grassroots financial support. His campaign has now received more contributions than any other candidate at this point in any White House bid.

President Barack Obama was the record holder. Through Dec. 31, 2011, his re-election campaign reported 2,209,636 donations. The Sanders campaign crossed that mark during the debate as grassroots supporters flooded the BernieSanders.com website. The average contribution for the night to the Sanders campaign was below $25.

The broadcast nightly network news has blacked out the Sanders campaign, but they have not been able to stop Sen. Sanders from setting fundraising records. Bernie Sanders would be greatly helped by getting the kind of free media coverage that has been lavished upon Donald Trump, but unlike Trump, he doesn’t need it to survive.

During the Democratic debate, ABC News continually tried to lump Trump and Sanders together, but the two candidates could not be more different. Sanders has the sort of grassroots support that Trump can only dream of. Sanders has millions of energized supporters working for his candidacy while Donald Trump has to rely on the free publicity that is being generated by the news networks’ ongoing fascination with his campaign.

The corporate broadcast networks have kept Bernie Sanders off of their nightly news broadcasts, but they have not been able to silence his message. The more money that Sanders can raise, the more he can do to spread the word about income inequality, regulating Wall Street, and stopping right-wing billionaires from buying the federal government.

Bernie Sanders has changed the conversation in the Democratic primary, and with the money that he is raising, Sen. Sanders can try to change the conversation in the entire country.

2015 has been a very good year for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).