Beto O’Rourke’s campaign announced Wednesday that it has raised $9.4 million during the first 18 days of his presidential campaign. That haul came from 218,000 contributions with an average donation of $43. The campaign said that 98 percent of the contributions made during the 18-day period were below $200 and that 99 percent of his fundraising came from online. They estimated that he raised an average of $520,000 per day and said that he was the “highest per-day raising candidate in the Democratic primary.”
“Not only is this a sign of our grassroots strength during the first two weeks of our campaign but it is a sign of what’s possible when you put your full trust in the people of this country,” O’Rourke said in a statement. The ex-congressman’s campaign previously announced that during the first 24 hours of his bid for the White House, he raised $6.1 million alone. At this stage, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has the largest overall fundraising total revealed as well as the largest pool of contributors, though he launched his campaign well before O’Rourke did. —Gideon Resnick
