Beto O’Rourke
Beto O’Rourke raised $6.1 million for his presidential campaign in his first 24 hours as a candidate, beating every other 2020 Democrat who has disclosed first-day figures, according to his campaign.
The haul surpasses that of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who raised $5.9 million in the 24 hours after his campaign launch.
O’Rourke’s campaign said the $6.1 million came from online contributions. He also said that he didn’t take any political action committee money — just like during his U.S. Senate campaign last year — and that he received contributions from every state and territory in the nation.
“In just 24 hours, Americans across this country came together to prove that it is possible to run a true grassroots campaign for president — a campaign by all of us for all of us that answers not to the PACs, corporations and special interests but to the people,” O’Rourke said in a statement.
I don’t particularly care about Presidential fundraising numbers, and I especially don’t much care about one day totals. I’m also steadfastly unattached in the primary right now – I’ll be voting for the nominee next November, and I’ll figure out who I want that to be when I’m good and ready. After the splashy announcement and quick reminder from the national press that he wasn’t in El Paso any more, there was a flood of hot takes about Beto’s ability to translate his appeal to the rest of the country and breathless speculation about what his initial reluctance to report an estimate of his take, and I must confess I enjoyed the subsequent dunking and “this one didn’t age well” responses on Twitter. Presidential campaigns are death marches, so you’ve gotta find your bliss where you can. I will now return to benignly neglecting the Presidential drama, at least for the most part.