Gillibrand, New York’s Democratic junior senator, has made running as a woman a central theme of her candidacy, and nearly two-thirds of the campaign’s donors were women, said the spokeswoman, Meredith Kelly.
Kelly did not disclose how many donors the campaign had, but she said that 92 percent of contributions were under $200.
Given her modest haul so far, Gillibrand will likely need to rely heavily upon the roughly $10 million in campaign funds she had left over after her Senate re-election bid last year. Only a few 2020 candidates had such a large cash stockpile to supplement their presidential fundraising.
Gillibrand transferred $9.6 million from her Senate account to her presidential campaign, and the campaign ended the quarter with $10.2 million in cash on hand, Kelly said.
In a memo Sunday, Gillibrand’s campaign suggested that her fundraising had been hampered by a continuing backlash to her decision in 2017 to call for the resignation of a fellow Democratic senator, Al Franken of Minnesota, over sexual harassment allegations.
“There’s no question that the first quarter was adversely impacted by certain establishment donors — and many online — who continue to punish Kirsten for standing up for her values and for women,” the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times, said.
Monday is the deadline for candidates to report their first-quarter fundraising to the Federal Election Commission, and the announcement by Gillibrand’s campaign came after many of her rivals had already revealed their fundraising totals.
Gillibrand’s total for the first quarter ranks, at best, eighth among 2020 Democrats. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont leads the candidates with $18.2 million raised in the quarter, followed by Sen. Kamala Harris of California with $12 million, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas with $9.4 million and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, with more than $7 million, according to figures announced by the campaigns.
Gillibrand also trails the other senators in the race who are not toward the top of the Democratic field in fundraising. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts raised more than $6 million, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota raised more than $5.2 million and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey raised more than $5 million, their campaigns have said.
Gillibrand’s total, collected over a period of 2 1/2 months, is roughly half of what Sanders and O’Rourke each raised in the first 24 hours of their presidential bids, according to their campaigns.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.