Small donors to President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign have flocked en masse to support Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2016 presidential run.
According to new data published by political technology startup Crowdpac, Sanders has attracted more than double the number of former Obama donors than has Democrat presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton at this point in the 2016 race.
The intuitive new graph on Crowdpac’s website, compiled from Federal Election Commission campaign contribution data, shows that 24,582 former Obama donors have contributed money to Sanders’ campaign. Meanwhile, just 9,101 former Obama donors have contributed money to Clinton’s campaign, and 383 have supported former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s 2016 bid.
The graph only takes into account “repeat” donors, Crowdpac’s Mason Harrison tells Breitbart News, so if a donor hasn’t yet contributed in 2016, he or she will not be represented on the chart. But the preliminary numbers offer a useful window into where supporters of each of the 2012 campaign’s candidates will pledge their contributions in next year’s election.
With more than a dozen Republican candidates already in the race, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s donor base has apparently splintered, with Florida Sen. March Rubio being the largest beneficiary of former Romney donors’ dollars. According to Crowdpac, 2,891 former Romney donors have already contributed to Rubio’s campaign, while 1,840 donated to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and 1,562 donated to former Florida Gov. and GOP establishment favorite Jeb Bush. Dr. Ben Carson has also drawn over 1,000 contributors from Romney’s donor base, while Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul have also drawn some support.
Meanwhile, former donors to Libertarian candidate Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign were, unsurprisingly, more inclined to support his son Rand Paul’s (R-KY) 2016 bid, although Sanders has drawn from some of Paul’s former donors as well.
Noticeably absent from the list is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who only announced his candidacy earlier this week.
Crowdpac says it will continue to update the graph with the latest figures from the FEC as the election continues.
The graph is just the latest piece of Crowdpac’s 2016 “Money Race” toolkit, which uses FEC data to paint a picture of each campaign’s financial strength. Voters can quickly and easily see which big donors and super PACs have contributed to each campaign, which industries contribute the most to each candidate and which candidates have raised the most money.
“This page speaks directly to the core mission of Crowdpac: to give politics back to the people and get everyone to participate more easily and effectively in the political process,” Crowdpac CEO Steve Hilton said in a statement provided to Breitbart News.
Sanders’ campaign has gained momentum in recent weeks; though Clinton is still the favorite among Democrat candidates by a large margin, a recent poll found voter support for Clinton slipping and, at the same time, support for Sanders rising.
Harrison tells Breitbart News that the graph indicates Sanders has “clear momentum among the small-donor donor base that fueled President Obama’s election and re-election.”
“While this group isn’t known for cutting the kinds of ‘max-out’ checks that Hillary Clinton is getting, they are exactly the type of supporters who will volunteer to help get out the vote – and that can’t be underestimated,” he added.