$33 million is raised for Sanders in quarter

PHOTOGRAPHER: The New York Times

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign raised more than $33 million in the final three months of 2015, as his wide base of small-amount donors enabled him to come within $4 million of the amount raised by Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, his campaign said Saturday.

Sanders, a senator from Vermont, has now raised $73 million for his nomination fight, his aides said in a news release.

The campaign said more than 1 million individual donors had made more than 2.5 million contributions, passing President Barack Obama’s record for the amount of individual donations, which was set at the end of 2011.

“This people-powered campaign is revolutionizing American politics,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said in a news release accompanying the release of the figures.

Sanders’ spending on the campaign also appears to have shot up — the release said the campaign has $28.4 million in cash left from the $73 million raised.

The release announcing the haul was replete with references to how, “unlike other campaigns,” Sanders was doing well with small-amount donors. The references were a veiled shot at Clinton, who raised $37 million in the last quarter and has taken in more than $112 million in donations overall. Clinton also has a “super PAC” supporting her.

Sanders’ campaign has aggressively targeted and courted low-dollar donors, developing a deep network of people it could keep tapping for new contributions.

Clinton, by contrast, struggled in the second and third quarters of the year to establish a low-dollar donor base, relying primarily on fundraisers with a higher ticket price to bring in donations.

Two of the Republican candidates, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ben Carson, have released their fundraising totals for the quarter, with Cruz raising $20 million, a two-thirds increase from his previous quarter, and Carson raising $23 million.