Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign posted lackluster fundraising numbers during the final quarter of the year, placing her squarely behind the other top contenders for the Democratic nomination.
The Massachusetts senator pulled in $21.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2019, a significant drop from the $24.7 million she raised over the previous three months.
Warren’s haul is well behind that of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, whose campaign said he pulled in an eye-popping $34.5 million during the fourth quarter despite his decision to eschew high-dollar fundraisers.
Warren has also promised not to collect donations from such fundraising events with wealthy donors in favor of prioritizing grass-roots support, though she has been criticized for continuing to rely on the high-dollar donations that she transferred from her senate reelection coffers upon beginning her presidential run. She received close to 900,000 donations over the quarter with an average donation of about $23.
Former vice president Joe Biden, currently the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, raised $22.7 million, and former South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg beat him slightly, raising $24.7 million. Notably, tech businessman Andrew Yang raised $16.5 million, a sizeable jump from his previous $10 million quarterly haul.
President Trump nevertheless outraised all individual Democratic 2020 candidates, pulling in $46 million over the last three months.
“If the only way that Democrats can pick a nominee is to go to the billionaires and corporate executives, then we’re going to have a country that keeps working better and better for those at the top,” Warren said in November after billionaire Michael Bloomberg entered the 2020 race.
Just before the end of the year, Warren’s campaign admitted “it will be nearly impossible to match last quarter at this point,” a move her campaign said sparked the more than $4 million in five days she raised before the quarter ended.
Her campaign has struggled to regain its momentum as Warren continues to waffle on her position regarding the contours of her Medicare for All proposal.
She previously supported Sanders’s Medicare for All plan, calling it “my plan,” but later distanced herself from it, calling the plan just a “framework.”
“I’ve been working for a long time on this question about what the cost will be and how to pay for it, and I’m getting close,” Warren said in October.