Getty Democratic presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg on June 8, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa
Pete Buttigieg’s campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination has seized on recent momentum as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana becomes more well-known nationwide. New fundraising numbers indicate the efforts are paying off, literally.
Buttigieg announced early on July 1 that the campaign had raised nearly $25 million in the second quarter alone. That is more than triple the amount raised during the first three months of 2019. The campaign raised $7 million in the first quarter, an amount that was viewed as very respectable at the time considering that approximately half of the surveyed voters had never even heard of Buttigieg at that time.
June 30 was the Federal Election Commission deadline for second-quarter fundraising. The FEC will release full campaign finance reports later this month.
Here’s what you need to know.
More Than 400,000 Unique Donors Have Given Money to Pete Buttigieg, According to His Campaign
Pete Buttigieg’s campaign more than tripled its fundraising haul compared to the first quarter of 2019. Campaign manager Mike Schmuhl shared in an email early on July 1 that Pete for America raised $24.8 million between April 1 and June 30. More than 400,000 people have donated to the campaign since it launched.
Senior advisor and top communications officer for the campaign, Lis Smith, shared additional details on social media. Smith said that the second quarter total was the result of funding from 294,000 donors. 230,000 of them were new donors; the rest had also contributed money in the first quarter.
Smith added that the Buttigieg campaign was entering the third quarter with $22.6 million cash. The average donation was just over $47. That’s a slight uptick from the first quarter when the average donation was about $36.
Pete Buttigieg’s Name Recognition Has Increased Substantially Since Launching His Campaign
We’ve released a special edition of our Democratic primary tracker – all surveys collected post-debate:
Biden: 33% (-5)
Sanders: 19%
Harris: 12% (+6)
Warren: 12% (-1)
Buttigieg: 6% (-1)
Booker: 3%
O’Rourke: 2% (-2)
Yang: 2%
Pete Buttigieg’s biggest hurdle at the very beginning of his campaign was that no one knew who he was. As the mayor of South Bend, a city of about 100,000 people in Indiana, Buttigieg did not have a lot of national name recognition.
A national Quinnipiac poll released on May 21 found that 51 percent of Democratic voters did not know enough about Pete Buttigieg to form an opinion of him. But 42 percent said they held favorable views of him.
Fast forward to just a few weeks later. A Morning Consult survey released on June 30 showed that 47 percent of surveyed voters have a favorable view of Buttigieg. 26 percent surveyed said they had never heard of him.
Pete Buttigieg Promoted Generational Change in a Video Thanking Donors
Thank you to the over 400,000 of you who have invested in this campaign, and who helped us raise over $24,800,000 this quarter alone. You inspire us every step of the way, and we’re just getting started. Text SHOWUP to 25859 to keep the momentum going!
One of Pete Buttigieg’s consistent talking points on the campaign trail is about pushing for generational change. In a video posted to Twitter on July 1, in which he thanked donors for helping the campaign to raise more than $24 million, Buttigieg included his push for a new era of leadership.
Buttigieg stated in the video that his months traveling the country and meeting with voters had shown him that “We need a new generation of American leadership.” Toward the end of the video, he added, “Together, let’s build a new American chapter.”
