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Cory Booker raised $5.1 million in first quarter, campaign says

Sen. Cory Booker has raised $5.1 million in the two months since he announced his 2020 plans, the presidential candidate's campaign said Sunday.

FILE - In this March 15, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., addresses a gathering as guests take photographs with their phones at a house party during a campaign stop in Claremont, N.H. The Iowa caucus is still 10 months away, but the Democratic primary campaign is already an all-out sprint _ passing eye-popping markers for campaign activity and voter engagement. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - In this March 15, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., addresses a gathering as guests take photographs with their phones at a house party during a campaign stop in Claremont, N.H. The Iowa caucus is still 10 months away, but the Democratic primary campaign is already an all-out sprint _ passing eye-popping markers for campaign activity and voter engagement. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)Read moreCharles Krupa / AP
    by Colby Itkowitz and David Weigel, Washington Post
    Published 

Sen. Cory Booker has raised $5.1 million in the two months since he announced his 2020 plans, the presidential candidate's campaign said Sunday.

Booker's haul, while competitive, puts him behind other Democratic White House aspirants, including former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Kamala Harris of California and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Booker's campaign said that 82 percent of the donors gave to the senator for the first time and that the average online contribution was $34.

The New Jersey Democrat, who was first elected to the Senate in a 2013 special election, raised $17.7 million to win a full term one year later. Among his donors in that campaign were Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. In 2017, Booker said he "wouldn't take a dime from them now" given their work for the Trump administration.

Booker has also decided against accepting money from industries that are controversial within the Democratic Party. He has signed the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, promising to reject donations from energy industry executives, and has refused to endorse any super PACs that could provide outside support. He has also distanced himself from the pharmaceutical industry, while saying he will continue to accept donations from lower-level employees of pharma companies.

"I live in Newark, a low-income community where people work for pharmaceutical companies," Booker told STAT in an interview this year.

Booker's total since he announced his candidacy on Feb. 1 is less than O'Rourke and Sanders brought in in the first 24 hours of entering the race.

Sanders is the fundraising leader with $18.2 million, followed by Harris with $12 million, O’Rourke with $9.4 million and Buttigieg - who has yet to formally declare his candidacy - with $7 million.