Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' campaign also said his supporters contributed $600,000 in donations that will recur monthly. | Win McNamee/Getty Images 2020 Elections Sanders campaign reports fast start on online petition

Bernie Sanders is more than halfway toward his goal of persuading 1 million people to sign onto a petition to support his presidential campaign, with 603,000 coming on board, according to his team.

The petition, a major part of his 2020 announcement rollout, gives the Vermont senator the opportunity to demonstrate his grassroots support in a crowded field of Democratic candidates — and build up his email list and base of donors and volunteers.


The 500,000-plus figure is another display of Sanders’ digital strength in Week 1 of his bid. During the first 24 hours after his launch, his announcement video was viewed more times on Twitter than any of the other 2020 contenders’ videos, many of which have been online for weeks.

He raised more than $5.9 million from more than 220,000 donors in the first 24 hours of his candidacy, easily beating the other candidates in the race for first-day fundraising.

The Sanders campaign also said his supporters contributed $600,000 in donations that will recur monthly.

“That really allows a campaign to do a strategy beyond the next little while,” said 2016 Sanders alum Pete D’Alessandro. “I think it would be almost impossible to say that was a bad 24 hours.”

