Harris’ third-quarter number is far below what some other candidates reported this week: Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, raised $19.1 million; Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont announced an eye-popping $25.3 million haul, the largest of any candidate this cycle. Two other top-tier candidates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Vice President Joe Biden, have yet to release their third-quarter totals.
Harris’ total for the second quarter of the year was $11.8 million, helped by a strong online donation push in the final days. This quarter, which included a summer largely spent at a slew of closed-door events and away from the campaign trail, Harris has seen her financial standing hold steady even as her political prospects fell. Polling now has her increasingly falling behind the race’s top-tier candidates.
The announcement comes as the Harris campaign embarks on its new all-in strategy in Iowa, with an explicit focus on finishing in the top three in February’s caucus there. Though Harris’ fundraising numbers have trickled downward each quarter, the campaign recently hired more than 60 political organizers for Iowa and is largely expected to remain a key player in the Iowa and South Carolina primaries, through the strength of her early state organizing.
A campaign spokesman said about half of her total funds, $6.5 million, was from her digital fundraising operation, which indicates small dollar donations.
“As we have spent the summer months strengthening our infrastructure, we enter this final stretch of 2019 with ample resources to execute a winning game plan,” said Juan Rodriguez, Harris’ campaign manager.
The Harris campaign did not disclose the total amount of donors the money comes from. The campaign said its average donation was $34, lower than the $39 average they reported in the previous fundraising quarter. Campaigns often point to small average donations as evidence that they are attracting a large pool of grassroots supporters.
In its announcement, the campaign said it had nearly $10 million cash on hand.
Harris’ total is above more lower-tier candidates. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, for instance, raised $6 million, his campaign said this week.
“This is a campaign that is growing, expanding and built to win this primary,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “We are ready to harness the energy of our thousands of grassroots volunteers to phone bank, knock doors and turn out the vote for Kamala in these 2020 contests.”
In this race’s early stages, Harris showed all the signs of a possible coalition candidate, merging liberals and more moderate minority voters behind the strength of her historic bid to become the country’s first woman of color elected president. On the race’s first day, she raised $1.5 million, and she soon held a kickoff rally in Oakland, California, that remains one of the largest events for any candidate, with more than 20,000 people in attendance.
However, as the race has matured, Harris has been outflanked in money and ideology. Buttigieg has become the favorite of big money donors, and advisers for Biden, the race’s most prominent moderate candidate, are now considering a super PAC to supplement his coffers.
On the grassroots side, progressives have centralized behind their two preferred candidates: Sanders, who retains many supporters from his previous presidential run, and Warren, who has grown her fundraising base as her poll numbers have risen. She has outpaced Biden and Sanders in recent polls, both nationally and in a few early-voting states.
Harris’ team is adamant that she remains well-positioned — and adequately funded — to mount a vigorous operation in Iowa. As Biden’s poll numbers fade, Harris’ advisers believe her campaign is likely to gain from this and can use a strong initial showing to centralize black voters in later states. Recently, Harris shook up her senior staff, in a move that was first reported by Politico and was taken as an acknowledgment of the campaign’s tough road ahead.
Ian Sams, Harris’ national press secretary, said Harris had her best fundraising day of the quarter Monday. That day, she called on President Donald Trump’s Twitter account to be suspended during an interview with CNN.
This article originally appeared in
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