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Newly minted Democrat for life, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) announced tonight that his presidential campaign’s army of small donors raised an eye-popping amount of nearly $46 million in March.

A statement from the Sanders campaign broke down the numbers:



Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign on Wednesday filed a report with the Federal Election Commission showing it raised nearly $46 million in March.

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In March, Sanders’ grassroots campaign received 1.7 million contributions from more than 900,000 individual donors. Sanders’ campaign has now raised more than $200 million since he launched his campaign in April 2015, including more than $110 million in the first quarter of 2016.

The average contribution for the month was $26.20, just under the long-term average Sanders cites in his stump speech.

Unlike other candidates, Sanders’ small-dollar donations allow him to run his primary campaign without the help of a Wall Street-funded super PAC. More than 96 percent of Sanders’ money comes from donors who have not maxed-out to his primary campaign and can give again. In fact, only 127 donors maxed-out to the campaign in March.

Sanders’ campaign reported more than $17 million cash on hand.



Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said, “Bernie’s grassroots campaign has now out-raised Secretary Hillary Clinton for three months straight. We’re honored to have the strong support of 2.2 million passionate donors who have given more than 7 million times. It’s because of them that our campaign can take on the establishment and win eight of the last ten primaries and caucuses.”

This is big news for the Sanders campaign, which came just hours after Weaver announced that Sanders was going to stay in the Democratic Party after the election, and will be supporting the nominee.

Hillary Clinton was believed to have an untouchable money machine when the primary began, but Bernie Sanders has changed the rules of the game by demonstrating that small donors can not only compete with super PACs and big fundraisers, but a group of dedicated small donors can beat the big money donor politics.

Bernie Sanders has stuck to his principles and changed the rules of the fundraising game. What Sanders has accomplished with an army of small donors has given underfunded candidates hopes and laid out a path to defeating the dirty post-Citizens United fundraising system. Bernie’s big dollars are a victory for a clean electoral process.