O'Rourke raised $9.4 million in 18 days as a 2020 candidate, his campaign says

The total, which represents O’Rourke’s fundraising haul for the first quarter of the year, is smaller than the first-quarter numbers of two rivals, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California. But O’Rourke only joined the presidential race in mid-March.

O’Rourke, who proved to be an extraordinary online fundraiser during his unsuccessful run for Senate last year, received 218,000 contributions, with an average donation of $43, his campaign said.

It also said that the majority of donors to his presidential bid had not donated to his Senate campaign. O’Rourke raised roughly $80 million for his race against Sen. Ted Cruz, creating high expectations for how much money he would be able to bring in as a presidential candidate.

After entering the 2020 race, O’Rourke offered early evidence of his fundraising power: His campaign said he had received $6.1 million in the first 24 hours of his bid, more than any other Democratic presidential candidate had announced raising in his or her first day. Sanders had previously been atop the pack, at $5.9 million in 24 hours.

That huge first day made up the majority of O’Rourke’s fundraising in the first quarter. Sanders went on to raise a total of $10 million within a week of announcing his campaign, his team said, a threshold that O’Rourke did not meet in 18 days.

O’Rourke’s campaign said that 98 percent of the contributions it received were below $200.

“Not only is this a sign of our grassroots strength during the first two weeks of our campaign,” O’Rourke said of his fundraising in a statement, “but it is a sign of what’s possible when you put your full trust in the people of this country.”

Presidential candidates must disclose their first-quarter fundraising by April 15, but some campaigns decide to make their numbers public before that deadline.

Sanders’ campaign said Tuesday that he had raised $18.2 million over six weeks, and Harris’ campaign said Monday that she had raised $12 million since joining the race in January. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said Monday that he had raised more than $7 million since January.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.