Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both had
strong fundraising quarters, netting $28 million and $26 million, respectively. Clinton has the advantage in having raised nearly double Sanders' haul since the start of the campaign and she's
now sitting on raised over $75 million so far, but Sanders has an advantage of his own—a base of donors that he can keep going to back to.
Sanders has overtaken Clinton in recent polls in New Hampshire and closed the gap nationally, and his strong performance in the money race—not typically a strong suit for Vermont Democratic-socialists—could fuel further concerns among Clinton supporters.
Both candidates have pursued different approaches to fundraising. Clinton has personally headlined 58 fundraisers, including a dozen in the past week, where attendees were expected to contribute to maximum $2,700 per person. With more than 100 attendees at meetings, Clinton could easily walk away from each event with hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank.
Sanders, meanwhile, has mostly shunned traditional fundraisers in favor of online buck-raking, with contributions that average around $25 apiece, according to his campaign, from more than 650,000 different donors.
That means Sanders can return to his donors many times to ask for more money, while many of Clinton’s donors will have already given as much as they can for the primary campaign under federal law. She could return to them again in the general election if she wins the nomination. (Sanders’ campaign has not yet said if all his money is primary-specific or includes general-election funds.)
That means Clinton has raised "more than any other non-incumbent candidate in this phase of the campaign in history," according to her campaign. She's also done well with lower dollar donations and continues to have strong support from women; 93 percent of her donors gave $100 or less and 60 percent of her donors are women. But this quarter's haul is also about 40 percent less than the previous two brought in.
Most Republican numbers aren't in yet, with the exception of the number two candidate in the polls, Ben Carson, who brought in $20 million. Jeb! Bush hasn't released totals, but is expected to surpass the $11.4 million he raised in the previous quarter. Of course, Jeb! has the advantage of his Super PAC, Right to Rise, which raised a record-setting $103 million in the first six months of 2015. Because the one thing a Bush won't have to worry about is big money being behind him.