In exactly a month, the political equivalent of The Hunger Games will kick off in the United States, with 14 Democratic candidates fighting it out for the chance to take on Donald Trump in the November presidential election.

The Iowa caucus is the first in a series of crucial state contests that will ultimately determine the Democratic nominee.

As always, the candidates' ability to draw political donations will be one of the major determining factors.

Collectively, Democratic cash registers have been sounding a merry tune, even out-raising their Republican rivals.

But individually, Democratic candidate war chests are a mere pittance when compared with the might of Mr Trump's fundraising juggernaut.

The Democrats face numerous challenges

Foremost is the absurdly large field of 14 candidates, which is slowly dwindling from the 26 running at the group's peak.

The remaining spread is splitting the pot of treasure that can be used for campaign advertisements.

The money the Democrats raise is largely being spent at cross purposes, often directly against each other.

This week the deadline passed for party donations in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Early indications suggest Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is polling at 17.8 per cent, is still far and away the best Democratic fundraiser.

With around 1.8 million individual donations this quarter, he says he raised $US34.5 million ($49.3 million), more than any other Democratic candidate has raised in any quarter this year.

Surpassing his goal of 5ive million individual donors, he's miles in front of the rest if inspiring large numbers of voters to hand over their cash is the measure.

Senator Sanders claims to have attracted more individual contributions from more Americans than any other candidate in the history of US politics.

(As a tangential note about popularity, Senator Sanders consistently blows away the rest of the Democratic pack in terms of Facebook mentions as well, according to data compiled by CrowdTangle. But Mr Trump has by far the most mentions of any candidate.)

Like Senator Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren (polling at 14.9 per cent) has decided to shun wealthy donors and big dollar fundraisers in favour of relatively small campaign contributions.

Unlike Senator Sanders, it's not working out so well for her.

In a desperation-tinged email to supporters in the days leading up to the fourth quarter fundraising deadline, Senator Warren stated simply: "We're behind."

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Breaking with the convention of keeping the numbers secret until all the loot is counted, Senator Warren's campaign team announced earlier they were on track to collect just $US17 million ($24.3 million).

Her team has yet to release its final numbers for the last three months of 2019, but $US17 million is just two-thirds the amount raised in the previous quarter, at a time when momentum is paramount.

Democrats are turning on themselves over money

In the recent Democratic debate, Senator Warren used her self-imposed fundraising piety to apply the blow torch to South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who's polling at 7.5 per cent.

"Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States," she declared, after detailing a Buttigieg fundraiser where $US900 ($1,288) bottles of wine were served to rich donors.

It set off a flurry of internet memes and became the moment of the debate.

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In response, Mr Buttigieg rightly pointed to the $US10 million ($14 million) in big-donor funds Ms Warren herself raised during her 2018 Senate bid, money which she has since transferred directly into to her presidential campaign.

Still Senator Warren's barb appears to have hurt the Mayor from South Bend, Indiana.

On Christmas Eve, Mr Buttigieg's campaign team launched a "contest" aimed at drawing small donors to his camp.

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Critics called it a "cynical ploy" to drive down his campaign's average donation amount in a bid to dampen the impression he's selling out. Mr Buttigieg's camp brought in $US24.7 million ($35.3 million) this quarter, just short of his summer record of $US24.8 million ($35.5 million).

Former vice-president Joe Biden, who's leading the Democrat pack with 27.8 per cent of the national vote, has bounced back in fundraising terms after a poor third quarter, in which he spent $US2 million ($2.8 million) more than the $US15.7 million ($22.4 million) he took in.

He announced a $22.7 million windfall on Twitter, his biggest quarter of the campaign so far.

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One big surprise contender in the fundraising stakes, relatively speaking, has been tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

The political outsider, who's polling just 3.5 per cent, said he raised more than $US16.5 million ($23.6 million) in the final three months of the year after a strong showing at the last debate.

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Donald Trump is still fundraising king

To put all of that in perspective, Mr Trump reportedly raised just as much as the top tier Democrat fundraisers — but did it in a third of the time.

Citing data obtained by the Federal Election Commission, Fox News claimed the Trump campaign raised $US20.6 million ($29.5 million) in November alone. His final fourth-quarter totalled $US46 million ($65.8 million), a figure that doesn't include Republican National Committee donations.

The President's team says he raised a whopping $143 million for the year.

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The Trump campaign has reportedly spent more than $US23 million ($32.9 million) on TV and digital advertising.

The only Democrat who can compete with the President dollar-for-dollar right now is fellow billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

Worth an estimated $US54 billion ($77 billion), he's so rich he doesn't have to bother with donations.

In fact, since entering the race just a month ago, Mr Bloomberg has spent close to $US100 million ($143 million) on ads, way more than the rest of the Democrats combined.

For those in the business of political consultancy, public relations and advertising, 2020 is shaping up to be a belter.

So much for draining the swamp.