Thread by @VABVOX

THREAD on campaign finances📌📌📌

So today I got assigned a story on FEC filings and it was eye-opening to spend the day looking at contributors.
Thus far this primary (not including Tom Steyer's own cash) the candidates have raised just under a half billion.
A half billion.
1/

The way that money comes in is telling. But that goes in the story.
Who are the top fundraisers?
Not what you think.
Right now Bernie Sanders is way out in front with $49.5M.
Warren is 2nd with $35.7M
Buttigieg is 3rd with $32.4M
These three have primarily small donors.
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The next few are surprising.
Delaney--yes, DELANEY--is next in 4th with $26.4M, so expect to see him in the next debate as the most annoying candidate (since de Blasio likely won't make it).
Harris is in 5th place at $25.1M--the most ever raised by a black woman candidate.

3/

Biden, the frontrunner, who gets mostly--and the most--corporate cash, is in 6th place, not 1st. He's at $22M.

The final 4 in the top 10 are very close:
Gillibrand $14.9M--small donors
O'Rourke $13.7M--mix of donors
Klobuchar $12.7M--small donors
Booker $12.5M--mix of donors

4/

Trump, who filed for re-election with the FEC on Inauguration Day, has the most money at $124.3M.

I think we are spending way too much on elections. There is another 500+ days till the 2020 election.

But this tells you who is moving & who is not.
Delaney. Wow. Just saying.
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I would just add that anyone thinking Bernie's going to drop out because his polling numbers are totally flat or dropping and cede his support to Liz Warren is fooling themselves. Not with that cash, he's not. But Warren IS in 2nd place, so.

Donate to the folks you want.
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One careful reader pointed out my faulty language here: I should have clarified that I mean big money donors when I say corporate: reps of corps, not actual corps, which isn't legal under FEC rules. So head of Comcast in Philly donated the max to Biden. Not actually Comcast.
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Also labor unions are also not allowed to contribute, which is why many form PACS, as do corps.
We need to get this money out of our campaigns, imo, but I've been saying that since college. And Steyer buying his way onto the stage exemplifies this.
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