Joe Biden Says His Campaign Has Raised Nearly $20 Million

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said at a fund-raiser in New York on Monday night that he had already amassed 360,000 donors with an average contribution of $55 — a disclosure that appeared to reveal he has raised $19.8 million for his presidential bid.

That is more than any other candidate raised in the first quarter of the year, when Senator Bernie Sanders paced the Democratic field and raised $18.2 million from more than 500,000 donors, and there are still two weeks remaining in the second quarter for Mr. Biden.

The revelation came at an unusual moment.

Campaigns typically guard their financial hauls closely, only releasing figures at strategic moments to maximize their impact. Mr. Biden made the declaration at the Upper East Side home of the hedge fund manager Jim Chanos.

Mr. Biden thanked the crowd, which Mr. Chanos estimated at 180, for having “allowed me to be able to compete in a way that I’ve never been able to before.”

“We’ve raised a great deal of money,” Mr. Biden said.

[Wall Street donors are beginning to pick their favorites in the 2020 race.]

The Biden campaign declined to comment on its fund-raising totals or say whether the figures Mr. Biden revealed were accurate. It had previously only announced raising $6.3 million in his first 24 hours as a candidate.

Mr. Biden still has two full weeks remaining in the second quarter to gather checks from large donors. He has more finance events in New York scheduled for Tuesday, and a big West Coast swing to the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle to close out the month following next week’s first Democratic debate.

In the first quarter of the year, the only two Democrats to raise more than $10 million were Mr. Sanders of Vermont ($18.2 million) and Senator Kamala Harris of California ($12 million). Mr. Biden entered the race in late April, after the first-quarter deadline had passed.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., is expected to be among the strongest fund-raisers in the second quarter, as well.

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