Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has exceeded his fundraising goals for the first few months of his campaign.
A new filing shows that Sanders raised almost $15 million from more than 250,000 people. The average contribution was $33.
At the end of April, Sanders said the fundraising goal for his presidential primary campaign would be between $40 and $50 million. In just eight weeks, he's raised about a third of that goal.
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver says virtually all of the money has been raised online at the campaign's website.
"We had almost 250,000 individuals giving small contributions averaging less than $34 apiece, $15 million total raised," Weaver says. "So this campaign is really catching fire. It's a campaign about the people. It is being funded by the people, so we couldn't be happier."
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign has reported that it raised more $45 million in the past three months. That's an-all time record for this reporting period.
Weaver says the fund raising strategies used by Clinton and Sanders highlight a key difference in their campaign.
At the end of April, Sanders said the fundraising goal for his presidential primary campaign would be between $40 and $50 million. In just eight weeks, he's raised about a third of that goal.
"This campaign reflects his values which are a campaign not funded by millionaires," he says. "There's no Super PAC, he doesn't want a Super PAC, and it's going to be funded by people who are responding to Bernie's message."
Retired Middlebury College political science professor Eric Davis says there's an advantage for Sanders to have so many small contributions.
"A lot of these people who might have given $25, $50, $100 so far, the Sanders campaign can go back to them later this summer and in the fall and ask them for another donation of about the same size. So I believe that the Sanders campaign is well positioned to make its goals," Davis says.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's campaign has reported that it raised more $45 million in the past three months. That's an-all time record for this reporting period.
Davis expects that Sanders will do well in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire because voters in these states expect to meet a candidate. But Davis says everything changes at the beginning of March when many states hold their primaries on the same day.
"And that's when things are going to become more challenging because these bigger states depend more on the candidate getting his message his or her message out through television advertising in a wholesale politics so to speak rather than retail politics," he says.
This weekend, Sanders embarks on a three-day swing of Iowa. The state kick offs the presidential election process when it holds its caucuses on Feb. 1.
