Campaign says it is shattering its previous records for donations after senator beat Clinton in the Hawkeye state
White House hopeful Bernie Sanders raised a staggering $5 million in the 18 hours since winning New Hampshire’s primary, his campaign announced Wednesday, further evidence he can mount a protracted Democratic nomination battle against Hillary Clinton.
Sanders’ team described the $5.2 million haul as “shattering the campaign’s previous record for money raised in less than a day.”
The fundraising bump came after he trounced Clinton 60 percent to 38 percent in New Hampshire, the second contest to determine the party standard bearer for the 2016 White House race.
Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who represents Vermont in the US Senate as an independent, prides himself on having raised small donations from more than three million Americans, and not a handful of billionaire donors whom he has accused of seeking to buy US presidential elections.
By comparison, Sanders raised more than $20 million for the entire month of January in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, mostly from online contributions averaging about $27 each.
Clinton’s campaign said in a recent fundraising email that she fell short of the Sanders tally “by more than $5 million in January.”
During his New Hampshire victory speech Sanders appealed to supporters to contribute what they could.
“I’m going to hold a fundraiser right here, right now, across America,” Sanders told the crowd, urging them to donate online and “help us raise the money we need to take the fight to Nevada, South Carolina” and beyond.
Experts say outsider Sanders has an uphill battle for the nomination against the Clinton juggernaut.
But his message of addressing income inequality, and demand for campaign finance reform that would prevent billionaires from spending unlimited funds in propelling their candidates to the White House, has resonated with voters, particularly young Americans.
As reported by The Times of Israel