Bernie Sanders’ March Fundraising: Campaign Hopes To Beat Previous Record

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign announced Thursday it plans to beat its previous monthly fundraising record of $43.5 million as it looks to ride momentum into the final three months of the nominating season.

“Our campaign is building the momentum we need to win the nomination and beat the Republicans in November," Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, said in a statement. "More and more people are joining Bernie's political revolution every day, and we're hopeful our supporters will help us reach another big goal for the month of March."

The campaign has received 6.2 million individual contributions from more than 2 million donors over the past year, according to a press release. They had already raised $39 million in the month of March as of Thursday and said that its average contribution came out to about $27.

Sanders has proven to be a much tougher adversary to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton than initially expected and has so far amassed 980 pledged delegates compared to Clinton’s 1,243. While many have noted that Sanders has a very tough path forward if he hopes to secure the Democratic nomination, his supporters assert that his momentum will only increase and note that he draws impressive crowds of thousands of people all across the country.

Sanders, in recent polls, has been the most liked candidate in the 2016 field and has an 84 percent favorability rating, which is almost 30 points above Clinton among Democrats. While both Clinton and Sanders poll better than Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Sanders beats him by a bigger spread, with 15 points over the real estate mogul compared to Clinton’s 10 percent lead.

The Vermont senator is clearly the favorite of small donors in the 2016 Democratic field, receiving 67 percent of his total donations from small donors compared to Clinton’s 18 percent, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Clinton’s campaign PAC has raised roughly $20 million more than Sanders’ PAC.