Beto O'Rourke fundraising
Beto's campaign has already broken fundraising records. Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke shakes hands as he arrives at a packed St. Patrick's Day party at the home of County Recorder John Murphy on March 16, 2019 in Dubuque, Iowa. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Robert "Beto" O’Rourke announced last week he would be running for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination, joining a crowded list of nominees that includes Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Cory Booker, and Sen. Kamala Harris.

According to a new report, he is already a surprise standout in one major way.

Figures compiled by CNN show the O’Rourke campaign has raised over $6 million in donations during its first 24 hours. In total, the campaign raised $6,136,763 from online donations across all 50 states, outraising Sanders' first day by roughly $200,000.

"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," said O'Rourke in a statement.

This speaks to O’Rourke’s ability to raise money, going back to his heated Senate race in Texas against incumbent Ted Cruz. In his Senate campaign, O’Rourke raised just over $70 million, the highest by a senate candidate in history. What set this apart from other campaigns was he raised it through small dollar single contributions and didn’t accept money from political action committees or major corporate interests.

While O’Rourke lost the race, he came within 215,000 votes — an impressive showing against a Republican incumbent.

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