Klobuchar pulls in nearly $5 million in third quarter, campaign says

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) raised nearly $5 million for her presidential campaign over the past three months, her campaign said on Monday, an improvement from her second-quarter fundraising haul but one that falls short of most of her closest rivals.

Klobuchar raised $4.8 million in the third quarter of the year, with an average contribution size of $29.78, her campaign said. It’s not clear how much cash on hand the Minnesota Democrat will report to the Federal Election Commission when financial filings are due later this month. 

{mosads}The third-quarter total is an uptick from the less than $3.9 million she raised between April 1 and June 30. But it’s still short of her $5.2 million fundraising haul in the first quarter of the year. 

It also puts her behind some of her closest competitors in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) were among the top fundraisers of the quarter, bringing in $25.3 million and $24.6 million, respectively. 

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who like Klobuchar is polling in the low-single digits, raised $6 million in the third quarter, which a large portion of that coming from an aggressive end-of-quarter fundraising push. 

Still, Klobuchar’s third-quarter fundraising efforts were enough to put her over the donor threshold to qualify for the fifth Democratic presidential debate in November. In the past three months alone, the Minnesota senator collected contributions from 105,000 donors, her campaign said.

To make the stage, candidates have to amass the support of at least 165,000 unique donors and register at least 3 percent in four qualifying polls or 5 percent in two early-state polls. While Klobuchar has met the donor threshold, she has yet to meet the polling criteria.

Justin Buoen, Klobuchar’s campaign manager, said that the campaign ramped up investments in early primary and caucus states throughout the third quarter, which helped lend momentum to Klobuchar’s fundraising efforts. 

“None of that would have been possible without the outpouring of grassroots support we received from Americans who believe in Amy’s unifying, optimistic message,” he said. “As we head into the final quarter of 2019, we continue to build momentum and a strong grassroots operation that can win in 2020.”