Buttigieg brings in $19.1 million in third quarter

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg raked in over $19.1 million in the third quarter, a substantial amount but short of the $24.8 million he raised in the second quarter.

The South Bend, Ind., mayor’s campaign added in a memo released on Tuesday that Buttigieg’s number of unique donors grew by 182,000 to a total to 580,000 contributors. 

{mosads}The campaign also said that the average contribution during the quarter was $32. 

“People continue to be drawn to Pete and his vision of bridging our divides and to his bold plans to move our country forward, and our campaign has grown exponentially faster than any other candidate in the 2020 field,” Buttigieg’s campaign manager Mike Schmuhl wrote in the memo. 

Buttigieg’s previous haul of $24.8 million in the second quarter had led the Democratic presidential field.

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) campaign also released news of the senator’s third-quarter fundraising on Tuesday, announcing the campaign brought in over $25 million in the quarter. 

Schmuhl added that the third quarter in an off-election year is “a notoriously challenging quarter to fundraise,” adding that Buttigieg’s campaign was still “hyper-focused” on winning the Democratic presidential nomination.  

Buttigieg, who has consistently polled in the top five of the crowded Democratic field, has struggled in recent months to gain traction on the leaders.

He is currently in fourth place in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, trailing the front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, by more than 20 points.