Donald Trump fundraising outpaces Democrats

Donald Trump raised $US46m in the last quarter compared with the $35m for his nearest Democrat rival Bernie Sanders.

‘You don’t need to beg the wealthy and powerful’: Bernie Sanders. Picture: AP

Donald Trump’s re-election team has revealed that he sits atop a staggering campaign war chest, underlining the scale of the challenge facing the US President’s Democratic rivals at the start of an election year.

The sprawling Democratic field meanwhile lost another candidate when Obama housing secretary Julian Castro, the only Hispanic in the 2020 race, announced he was ending his bid.

That leaves 14 candidates still in the running to take on Mr Trump — and competing for much-­needed donations that keep a campaign’s all-important ground game and advertising operations going.

In the fourth quarter of 2019, even as Mr Trump was mired in a political scandal that resulted in his impeachment by the House of Representatives, he came out on top, raising $US46m.

It was his best fundraising ­period in a year that brought in $US143m for his re-election efforts, the campaign said on Friday, easily outpacing the Democrats seeking to replace him.

And while Democrats are now effectively raising funds to compete against one another ahead of the election in November, Mr Trump has the luxury of stockpiling funds until his opponent is selected.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro. Picture: AP

Mr Trump’s campaign now has an impressive $102.7m in cash on hand. “The President’s war chest and grassroots army make his re-election campaign an unstoppable juggernaut,” said Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale.

“Democrats and the media have been in a sham impeachment frenzy and the President’s campaign only got bigger and stronger with our best fundraising quarter this cycle.”

Mr Trump’s fundraising haul is significantly higher than that of his challengers, including Bernie Sanders, the liberal senator who has so far raked in the most — $US34.5m in 2019’s final three months — of any Democratic contender.

The Sanders team also said it topped a notable threshold of five million individual donations, a figure not reached by his 2016 campaign until March of that year.

“Together, we’re proving you don’t need to beg the wealthy and the powerful for campaign contributions in order to win elections,” Senator Sanders said.

Democratic rival Pete Buttigieg also posted strong numbers, raising $US24.7m in the fourth quarter, bringing his 2019 total to more than $US76m. Mr Buttigieg — who until Wednesday served as mayor of South Bend, Indiana — has been a campaign surprise, and leads in polling in Iowa, the state that votes first in the nomination race on February 3.

Frontrunner Joe Biden, senator Elizabeth Warren and senator Amy Klobuchar have yet to announce their quarterly hauls.

One candidate showing unexpected resilience is Andrew Yang, an Asian-American entrepreneur with no political experience who remains in contention against far more established party figures.

Mr Yang raised $US16.5m in the fourth quarter, capping a dramatic uptrend from early 2019 when he was a virtual unknown.

While Mr Biden, Senator Sanders, Senator Warren, Mr Butti­gieg and Senator Klobuchar have qualified for the next Democratic debate, on January 14, Mr Yang has not. Neither has senator Cory Booker, congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard or billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who entered the field only in November. Mr Castro also failed to meet the qualifications.

AFP