Warren raises $24.6 million in third quarter

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised $24.6 million for her presidential campaign in the last three months, her campaign said on Friday, a total that far exceeds that of former Vice President Joe Biden and nearly ties the sum raised by her chief ideological rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Warren’s third-quarter fundraising haul was driven by 943,000 contributions, her campaign said, a sign of strong grassroots support as she heads into the critical three-month campaign season ahead. 

{mosads}The $24.6 million total is also notably higher than the roughly $19.2 million she raised in the second quarter of the year.

The financial haul is the second-highest reported by a Democratic presidential candidate this quarter. Sanders’s campaign announced on Tuesday that he had raised $25.3 million in the third fundraising quarter, the most reported by any Democratic candidate this year.

But Warren’s total exceeded that of the third-place fundraiser, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is expected to report a $19.1 million quarterly haul to the Federal Election Commission. 

It is also nearly $10 million higher than the sum disclosed by Biden, who announced on Thursday that he had raised $15.2 million. 

The surge in fundraising for Warren coincides with a recent ascent in several national and early state polls, some of which show her surpassing Biden as the Democratic primary field’s ostensible front-runner. 

That money is likely more than enough to fuel Warren’s campaign operations in the few months leading up to the Iowa caucus, the first round of voting in the Democratic nominating contest. Warren already has among the largest field operations of any candidate in the primary field, notably investing millions of dollars early on in her campaign to hire hundreds of staffers.

In an email to supporters on Friday, Warren’s campaign manager Roger Lau said that the campaign will start building out its operations in states beyond the four early primary and caucus states, including those that hold their nominating contests in March. 

In particular, Lau said, Warren’s team will focus its efforts in states with key down-ballot races in 2020. 

“That way, your support won’t just help elect Elizabeth — you’ll help elect Democrats up and down the ballot so we can make big, structural change, and so we can stop Republicans from being able to draw gerrymandered maps for 2022 and beyond,” he wrote.