Bennet raised $2.8 million to start presidential campaign
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet raised $2.8 million for his presidential campaign in the second quarter, his campaign told POLITICO, adding another $700,000 from his Senate committee to bolster his 2020 run.
The $3.5 million total puts Bennet far behind two front-runners who have already announced their second-quarter fundraising. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised $24.8 million from April through June, his campaign said, while Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) campaign brought in $18 million, plus a sizable $6 million transfer from Sanders' past campaign committees.
But Bennet raised more in his first quarter in the presidential race than a number of other Democrats did in the first quarter of the year. And Bennet lapped John Hickenlooper, his fellow Colorado Democrat and rival in the 2020 race. Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado, raised around $1 million in the second quarter and is running out of cash, POLITICO reported.
"Despite Michael entering the race late because of a prostate cancer diagnosis, we raised more in two months than several other campaigns did in the entire first quarter," Bennet for America spokesperson Shannon Beckham said in a statement. "We’re building a sustainable, long-term campaign to defeat Donald Trump, and we’re just getting started.”
Bennet's campaign did not say how much money it has in the bank or how many donors contributed to the campaign. It did say that Bennet got a boost last Friday, following the candidate's participation in the first round of Democratic presidential debates. Bennet got the highest number of donors since his launch week on that day, the campaign said, and 54 percent of them were new to the campaign.
