Sanders' Fundraising Team Should Be Celebrating

Front-runner, indeed. Just 24 hours after officially kicking off his campaign for president, Bernie Sanders has lined his pockets with $5.9 million raised from more than 225,000 donors, according to the Vermont senator's campaign. The New York Times reports the tally is "not unexpected" but "far surpasses what any of his rivals have disclosed raising after their own announcements." Second to Sanders is California Sen. Kamala Harris. Her campaign raised $1.5 million from some 38,000 online donors in the 24 hours after her Jan. 21 announcement—the same amount Sanders raised in the 24 hours after revealing his 2016 candidacy.

He has another leg up in that 2.1 million online donors have given money to him over the past six years, according to a Times analysis. Elizabeth Warren is second among declared left-wing candidates, but still far behind with 343,000. Politico credits Sanders' advantage to a heavy presence on Facebook and Twitter over the past two years. That might also explain why his announcement video got 5.4 million views in its first day on Twitter—"more than any other 2020 contender's formal announcement or exploratory committee video," per Politico, which concludes "the rest of the field is playing catch-up." Meanwhile, the CBC looks back at Sanders' 1989 claim that he was retiring from politics. (He now talks of revolution.)