Beto O. Rourke's fundraising dropped to $ 3.6 million in the second quarter

Beto O'Rourke will report collecting about $ 3.6 million from April to June, a surprisingly small sum for a candidate whose presidential campaign seemed to be rising and who collected huge sums of money for his race in the Senate. of 2018.

The total, which O'Rourke's campaign will send to supporters tonight in an email, accounts for less than half of the $ 9.4 million collected by O'Rourke in the first quarter, and well short of that. $ 6.1 million raised by O & # Rourke within 24 hours of being announced. his presidential campaign in March, which raised early expectations for his campaign.

History continues below

O'Rourke, after a dazzling start, stagnated at less than 10% in opinion polls. And his relatively small fundraising reflects the challenge he will face in getting back into the race.

In the e-mail obtained by POLITICO, O'Rourke's campaign confirmed that he had amassed enough small donors to reach the threshold needed to qualify for the fall presidential debates – a lifeline for his campaign and a major advantage over other low-ballot candidates.

The threshold of the September debate – 130,000 donors, plus a score of at least 2% in four polls – is likely to significantly defeat the primary field.

O'Rourke's campaign said his donations of more than $ 3.6 million in the second quarter came from 199,899 contributions, an average of $ 30. Its fundraising campaign was 99% successful at least online. Nearly half of his contributions during the quarter – 48 percent – were new donors to O'Rourke's presidential campaign, and 98 percent of his donations were under $ 200.

"When we look at our fundraising as a whole, we're in a great position," Jen O'Malley Dillon, his campaign manager, wrote in e-mail. "I will not make the right choice: we have work to do, but we have the resources to execute our strategy."

Nevertheless, the total quarterly fundraising – a significant measure of the viability of a campaign – even wiped out many of O'Rourke's allies, who had sparked private alarms in recent days about this initiative. less expected.

O'Rourke, a former Texas congressman, was seen as a formidable presidential candidate, largely because he had raised more than $ 80 million in his Texas Senate race that had nearly failed last year.

But O'Rourke's fundraising machine was quickly destroyed. He not only raised less money in the second quarter than he did in the first quarter of this year, but also less than in the four quarters of 2018 when he ran in the Senate.

O'Rourke's councilors and allies said he had time to improve his position in the primary. He continued his program of meetings and public activities and recently hired a group of highly respected officers at his headquarters in El Paso and Iowa, the country's largest caucus state.

O'Rourke's campaign announced Monday that it will expand to eleven field offices in Iowa by the end of the week.

But O'Rourke now raises funds from second-tier candidates rather than those he has already seen.

The five Democrats who regularly vote in front of O'Rourke – Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg – collected a combined total of about $ 100 million.

O'Rourke nevertheless raised more points than other, less well-known contenders.

Julián Castro, compatriot of O'Rourke; Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang each raised about $ 2.8 million, while Montana's governor, Steve Bullock, raised $ 2 million during the second quarter of fundraising.

Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper collected about $ 1.2 million.