Sanders beats Clinton in January fundraising

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders outraised rival Hillary Clinton in January.
 
{mosads}Clinton on Thursday announced a January fundraising total of $15 million, short of Sanders’s $20 million during that period.
 
Despite that, the Clinton campaign touted the number as a sign of her widespread appeal.
 
“We invested early in organizing and that investment has already paid off with a Hillary Clinton victory in Iowa,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement. 
 
“Now, thanks to the support of more than 670,000 people across the country, we have the resources we need to take the fight to to New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and beyond. We are also continuing to work on the important goal of strengthening the Democratic Party to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November.”

The Clinton campaign also used Sanders’s January lead as part of a fundraising pitch, hoping to motivate supporters.

“If you’ve believed that Hillary Clinton is going to win this election because other people are going to step up and take care of it, this should be a very loud wake-up call,” campaign finance director Dennis Cheng wrote in an email to supporters Thursday.

“There’s no cavalry coming — it’s just people like you who are going to decide whether or not to step up to elect the first woman president our country has ever had.”

The two campaigns have both seen success while relying on very different fundraising strategies. Sanders has raised the bulk of his funds through small-dollar donations of $200 or less. He often boasts that the average donation is just $27.

Clinton’s operation, on the other hand, has been driven by donors who contribute the max amount of $2,700 per cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog. 

The latest figure brings the total Clinton fundraising haul to over $130 million in the race. Added to that, a super-PAC, Priorities USA, raised over $41 million on her behalf in 2015.