Sanders campaign touts fundraising record

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) late Saturday broke the record for the most individual contributions to a presidential campaign in an off year, his campaign said in a statement released on Sunday.

“His campaign has now received more contributions than any other candidate at this point in any White House bid – more than 2.3 million contributions,” the statement read.

{mosads}The previous record was held by then-Sen. Barack Obama, who in 2011 amassed 2,209,636 individual donations.

The campaign said Sanders passed that mark with a spree of donations during Saturday night’s Democratic primary debate.

“The Sanders campaign crossed that mark during the debate as grassroots supporters flooded the BernieSanders.com website,” the campaign said. “The average contribution for the night to the Sanders campaign was below $25.”

News of the record comes after Sanders raised over $1 million last week amid his fight with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which he has accused of partiality toward Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

The statement also pointed to polls taken after the debate that found the self-proclaimed democratic socialist won the contest.

“After the debate, Sanders was named the winner by viewers who voted in large-sample polls from Time, PBC, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Telegraph.co.uk and The Washington Times,” it said.

“On Time’s website, for example, 84 percent of the 27, 246 who had taken the poll in the first 90 minutes after the debate said Sanders won.”