Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s recent fundraising totals put her in striking distance of qualifying for the third Democratic debate. So far in the campaign, the Minnesota senator raised $12.7 million from more than 100,000 unique donors. To participate in the third Democratic debate in September, candidates need contributions from 130,000 unique donors.
Klobuchar’s fundraising puts her in the middle of the large pack of Democratic presidential candidates. But it matters where those donations came from.
As a three-term senator from Minnesota, Klobuchar has built a big base of support in the North Star State. Now, five months into a national campaign for the presidency, how successful has she been at drawing in supporters from outside the state?
Home state fundraising advantage
Klobuchar’s biggest source of donations is Minnesota, her home state. Of the $2.5 million Klobuchar raised in the second quarter from individuals that are itemized in the report, about $700,000 came from Minnesotans — 28 percent.
(A note about the data: our state analysis only looks at itemized individual donations. Candidates are only required to report names and addresses of donors who give over $200, though some candidates itemize smaller donations.)
It shouldn’t be surprising that Klobuchar has gone back to donors in her home state who may have given to her previous Senate campaigns. But other senators in the race have been more successful reaching donors from other states.
For example, Sen. Bernie Sanders raised $5.5 million in individual donations in the second quarter, only $79,000 of them from his home state of Vermont.
Of course, Sanders has an established nationwide fundraising operation from his presidential campaign in 2016. What about Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts?
Minnesota and Massachusetts have somewhat comparable populations — Minnesota has 5.6 million people and Massachusetts has 6.9 million. Warren raised a lot more cash from out-of-state than Klobuchar: of the $6.4 million she raised in the second quarter from individuals that’s itemized, only $800,000 came from Massachusetts donors — 13 percent.
Sen. Kamala Harris represents a special case since her home state of California also happens to be the nation’s most populous and a large source of donations to all campaigns. She raised $6.5 million from individuals, half of which come from California.
Sen. Cory Booker, of New Jersey, has the fundraising profile most similar to Klobuchar. He raised $3.3 million in itemized individual contributions, 29 percent of which came from New Jersey.
Support from Minnesota may be drying up
Klobuchar’s dependence on Minnesota donors could be a problem as high profile Minnesota contributors hit caps on the maximum legal amount allowed to be contributed — $2,800 per person in the primary and $2,800 in the general election.
Klobuchar’s donor list already features some of the heavy hitters of DFL politics, with names like former Vice President Walter Mondale, Robert and Rebecca Pohlad, Vance Opperman, Alida Messinger, Andrew Dayton, Sam and Sylvia Kaplan and Jay and Page Cowles.
Support for Klobuchar from Minnesotans already appears to be slowing down.
In the first quarter, Klobuchar raised $1.2 million in individual contributions from Minnesotans. In the second quarter, that number dropped to $699,000.
That puts her in league with Booker, whose home-state haul dropped between the fist and second quarters. Warren, by contrast, went from raising $433,000 in the first quarter to $807,000 in the second from Massachusetts.
Fundraising totals
Here are the totals raised from all sources by the entire Democratic field in the second quarter:
