Kamala Harris, whose late-June debate performance lifted to into the top ranks of the Democratic presidential field, raked in $12 million during the second quarter of 2019, well short of rivals Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg.
The California senator’s fundraising haul was built on contributions of 279,000 donors, including almost 150,000 new contributors, according to her campaign. But most of the April-through-June fundraising period elapsed before Harris’ breakout debate performance in which she challenged Biden, a former vice president and 36-year Delaware senator, over his 1970s-era opposition to school busing.
Harris’ second-quarter fundraising figures, reported by her campaign ahead of the official Federal Elections Commission deadline, pale in comparison to Biden’s $21.5 million and $24.8 million for Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Conspicuously missing from the Harris fundraising totals are the campaign’s cash-on-hand.
The Harris campaign has suggested her post-debate fundraising haul would be much better. The former California attorney general’s campaign earlier in the week touted the $2 million she raised in the 24 hours after the televised events.
“Harris brought in more than $7 million through her digital program alone. The campaign’s average contribution was $39, and the average online contribution was just $24. Harris launched her campaign on January 21 with a promise to reject money from corporate PACs and federal lobbyists,” the campaign wrote in a statement, adding it had earned “nearly half a million dollars this quarter from its online store.”
The 54-year-old Oakland, California, native reported earning the same amount, $12 million, after the Federal Election Commission’s first filing deadline on March 31.
