In the first 24 hours since Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) announced her 2020 bid, the senator raised $1.5 million in online contributions from more than 38,000 individual donors, according to her aides. The Wall Street Journal first reported the figures.
Around $1 million of that was raised in the first 12 hours of her candidacy alone; and the average contribution from all donors was $37.
In 2015, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), another big small-dollar fundraiser, reported raking in more than $1.5 million in the first 24 hours of his 2016 campaign. That haul came from a reported 35,000 individual donors, which would put him just behind Harris’ donor tally in the first 24 hours—a tally the Harris campaign believes could constitute the most individual online donors ever in the first day of a campaign.
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Furthermore, Harris aides said the campaign made more than $110,000 in revenue from the senator’s online store in 12 hours, and received an individual online contribution from every state in the first 30 minutes after she announced her bid. The campaign also claimed its email list grew by 20 percent on Monday, and her official announcement video, which teased an upcoming rally in Oakland, was viewed at least six million times.
“These numbers reveal a campaign powered by the people—an energetic, nationwide movement eager to elect Senator Harris and support her vision of an America that actually works for the people,” said Mike Nellis, president of Authentic Campaigns, a digital communications firm working for Harris.
Shelby Cole—who also works at the firm and was previously heralded as a mastermind of Beto O’Rourke’s massively successful fundraising haul during his Senate run—sat with Harris’ husband Doug to co-write an email to the campaign email list on Monday evening, aides said. That email, featuring pictures that he took throughout the launch day, raised six figures within the first few hours, the campaign said.
