Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Warren Fundraising Drops, Lagging Behind Other Top Candidates

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign raised $21 million in the last three months of 2019, a drop from her previous total and a lower total than other top Democratic candidates.
Joe Raedle
/
Getty Images
Sen. Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign raised $21 million in the last three months of 2019, a drop from her previous total and a lower total than other top Democratic candidates.

As other candidates report significant increases in fundraising, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised $21.2 million in the final three months of 2019, according to her presidential campaign, a drop from the $24.7 million she raised in the previous fundraising period.

The figure is also less than the totals that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg took in between September and December.

Campaigns are reporting fundraising in three-month windows.

The slight decline mirrors Warren's poll numbers in the final months of 2019: After surging for much of the summer and early fall, her campaign ran into some turbulence amid pressure to release a health care plan and the rollout of a policy that would create a single-payer system in stages, and not fully implement it until the third year of her administration.

Warren's campaign has often derided what it calls the "poller coaster," and she has increasingly focused on organizing in Iowa and New Hampshire in an attempt to regain that sense of growing momentum in the final month before caucusing and voting begins.

Fundraising totals, in millions of dollars, as of 10 a.m. ET on Jan. 3. Third-quarter totals are from Federal Election Commission data. Fourth-quarter totals are reported by the campaigns without providing official FEC filings.
/ Arnie Seipel/NPR/FEC, various presidential campaigns
/
Arnie Seipel/NPR/FEC, various presidential campaigns
Fundraising totals, in millions of dollars, as of 10 a.m. ET on Jan. 3. Third-quarter totals are from Federal Election Commission data. Fourth-quarter totals are reported by the campaigns without providing official FEC filings.

Sanders led Democratic presidential candidates with a reported $34.5 million haul. Buttigieg was next at $24.7 million, according to his campaign, followed by Biden at $22.7 million.

All four top-tier candidates were outraised by President Trump, though the Democratic field's overall fundraising far eclipses the $46 million his campaign raised in the fourth quarter.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar more than doubled her previous fundraising total, posting an $11.4 million haul. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang raised $16.5 million, a big increase from his prior total of about $10 million. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard raised $3.4 million, as first reported by NBC News.

The Federal Elections Commission will post full campaign finance reports later this month, which will include a broader sense of campaigns' financial standings, including how much money they have spent and have remaining in the bank.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Scott Detrow is a White House correspondent for NPR and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.