Hillary Clinton brought in more campaign cash in April than rival Senator Bernie Sanders, the first time in months that the Democratic front-runner has bested Sanders and his juggernaut of fervent supporters willing to donate over and over.
Clinton’s campaign said on Monday it raised about $26.4 million in donations for the primary. Sanders’ campaign said on Sunday that it brought in $25.8 million in April.
Clinton’s success in April was due more to a dramatic drop-off in Sanders’s donations rather than a big spike in hers. Sanders had brought in about $44 million a month in February and March; Clinton’s haul for March was about $27 million.
The drop-off for Sanders coincides with the narrowing of his chances to defeat Clinton, who remains far ahead of him in overall votes and delegates. Clinton has won six of the last seven state contests, including the two biggest prizes on the calendar in April — New York and Pennsylvania.
Clinton’s campaign also said it brought in more than $9.5 million for the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic parties in April through a joint fund-raising arrangement. Sanders is not doing that and has been sharply critical of the enormous donations possible under the joint structure.
Clinton has raised $213.5 million in primary funds for the campaign and more than $46 million for the DNC and state parties since the start of her campaign in April 2015, her campaign said.
As she begins campaigning in earnest for the general election, Clinton starts in May with about $30 million in the bank, according to her campaign. The Sanders campaign did not say how much it has on hand.
Sanders’s fund-raising model seeks smaller amounts from donors — he frequently notes that the average is less than $30 — but his campaign asks those supporters to give multiple times. Clinton has focused on finding people willing to give the maximum $2,700 per person during the primary.
The Clinton campaign separately announced results of a special fund-raising appeal that sought to profit from Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s remark last week that all Clinton had going for her was “the woman’s card.”
Her campaign quickly turned the remark into multiple requests for money to combat what the Clinton campaign called sexist bullying. It produced a pink plastic “Woman Card” as a tongue-in-cheek reward to donors.
From April 28 through April 30, the Woman Card promotion raised $2.4 million, the Clinton campaign said. The donations came from 118,000 donors making more than 127,000 donations, and more than 40 per cent of donors to the Woman Card drive had not previously given to Clinton, her campaign said. It was not immediately known whether any of those were former Sanders supporters.
Also on Monday, the Clinton campaign confirmed a New York Times report that longtime Clinton adviser and supporter Minyon Moore will join the campaign as a senior adviser.
Sanders’s loss in the New York primary on April 19 was widely viewed as a turning point in the race.
The Vermont senator has emerged as the biggest-spending candidate in the race, and his April total is not enough to maintain his pace of spending on television ads and other facets of the race.
Last week, his campaign announced that it was shedding 225 staffers to “right-size” its personnel heading into the final nominating contests, including Indiana on Tuesday.
The lower haul also comes as Sanders is ramping up to compete against Clinton in California, where there are multiple media markets and the cost of television advertising is very expensive.
Sanders has said in recent days that he remains in the race with the intent of winning but that he is also manoeuvring to make the Democratic platform as progressive as possible at the July convention in Philadelphia.
During an appearance on “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning, Sanders said his path to the nomination is “difficult but not impossible.”