Buttigieg says campaign gained enough donors to be on debate stage

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) said Saturday that his campaign raised enough individual donors to guarantee a spot at the first Democratic Party debate of the 2020 cycle.

Buttigieg, who is exploring a White House bid but has not officially announced a campaign, announced Saturday that his team had received more than 76,000 individual donations, passing the 65,000 individual threshold set by the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

{mosads}In a second tweet, Buttigieg called for more donations, telling supporters that he “need[s] to know we can build a strong organization, too,” if he were to launch a presidential bid.

“Thanks to you, we hit the @TheDemocrats 65,000 donor goal in order to be invited to the first debate. But we are going to need to raise a lot more money to compete,” Buttigieg wrote.

I know I can hold my own on the debate stage and represent your values with honor and integrity, but I need to know we can build a strong organization, too.

Make a commitment to stay involved: https://t.co/UWrEa7oGMc

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) March 16, 2019

Buttigieg appeared at CNN town hall earlier this week and attacked Vice President Mike Pence, a fellow Indianan, for his continued support of President Trump despite the president’s scandals involving Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who revealed that the Trump campaign paid her thousands of dollars to remain silent about claims of an affair with Trump.

“How could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency?” Buttigieg said at the event at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

“Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump? I don’t know,” he added.

Buttigieg is the only openly gay candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary, and the only currently-serving mayor among the prominent contenders.