Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has received one million donations to her campaign for president, her team announced on Friday, making her the only Democratic candidate aside from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to reach that threshold so far in the 2020 cycle.
The milestone further solidifies Ms. Warren’s standing as a top fund-raiser after a slow first three months in the presidential race, during which she raised just $6 million. Despite having sworn off private fund-raisers, Ms. Warren raised $19.2 million in the second quarter, placing her behind only Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. during that period.
Ms. Warren posted a video on Friday that showed her calling the supporter who made the millionth contribution. “I’m calling to say a double woo-hoo thank you!” she said. “This is how we’re going to do it.”
In an email sent to supporters about the accomplishment, Ms. Warren’s campaign manager, Roger Lau, described her presidential bid as a “100 percent people-powered campaign.”
[Which Democrats are leading the 2020 presidential race this week?]
“This is exciting proof of the momentum that we see on the ground across the country,” he wrote. “Powerful special interests and other campaigns are watching to see how ready we are to fight for big, structural change. And by hitting this first milestone, you’re helping to show them that change is coming sooner than they think.”
Mr. Sanders announced that he had crossed the million-donation threshold in April, and his campaign said Friday that it had reached two million donations on July 11. He has raised $36.2 million this cycle, more than Ms. Warren’s $25.2 million total. But his haul in the second quarter, $18 million, was slightly less than Ms. Warren’s in that period, which ran from April through June.
Attracting small donations from a large number of individuals has taken on even greater importance this cycle as the Democratic National Committee has made grass-roots fund-raising a qualification standard for the debates. To earn a spot on the debate stage in September, candidates must have received donations from at least 130,000 unique contributors, a bar that, as of Friday morning, only eight of the 24 candidates had met, according to a New York Times analysis.
[Cory Booker and Kamala Harris challenged Mr. Biden’s record on race ahead of the next debate.]
Ms. Warren’s campaign did not specify how many individuals had made donations this cycle, only that one million donations were made over all. Donors can make multiple contributions over the course of the campaign.
Ms. Warren’s strong fund-raising in recent months coincided with a rise in polling that has firmly placed her in the top tier of candidates. She has been propelled in part by her steady stream of policy plans, which have brought attention to her campaign and helped shape the debate in the Democratic primary.
Ms. Warren will be onstage next to Mr. Sanders in the next debate on Tuesday. The two candidates, the leading progressives in the field, debated on separate nights last month.