Detailed Maps of the Donors Powering the 2020 Democratic Campaigns
Candidates with the most individual donors
Darker shades on the map indicate a greater share of estimated donors.
1. Sanders
746,000
1. Sanders
746,000
2. Warren
421,000
2. Warren
421,000
3. Buttigieg
390,000
3. Buttigieg
390,000
4. Harris
277,000
4. Harris
277,000
5. Biden
256,000
5. Biden
256,000
6. O’Rourke
188,000
6. O’Rourke
188,000
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a huge lead over other Democratic presidential candidates in the number of individual donors they have each accumulated so far.
This is the first time since the primary race began in earnest that we can estimate how many individual donors each candidate has attracted — a key indicator of how much they are catching on with voters.
Mr. Sanders is relying heavily on small donors to power his campaign, and he entered the 2020 race with a huge network of online donors who supported his 2016 presidential bid. The map above shows the breadth of Mr. Sanders’s roster of donors across the United States.
A map that includes the rest of the Democratic field without Mr. Sanders offers a picture of where the other major candidates are picking up donors. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the other leading progressive in the race, is outpacing the rest of the field across much of the country — a sign that her strategy of relying on grass-roots donors, and refraining from holding high-dollar fund-raisers, is working.
Candidates with the most individual donors when Sanders is excluded
Where Bernie Sanders is leading, the runner-up is shown. Darker shades on the map indicate a greater share of estimated donors.
1. Sanders
746,000
1. Sanders
746,000
2. Warren
421,000
2. Warren
421,000
3. Buttigieg
390,000
3. Buttigieg
390,000
4. Harris
277,000
4. Harris
277,000
5. Biden
256,000
5. Biden
256,000
6. O’Rourke
188,000
6. O’Rourke
188,000
The map also shows regional strength for some candidates, like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is doing well in Delaware and northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as in many places across the Southeast. Senator Kamala Harris of California is formidable in her home state, the nation’s most populous. And Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., has drawn strong support in some parts of the Midwest.
Attracting individual donors has been particularly important in the 2020 race because the Democratic National Committee is using grass-roots fund-raising as one of the qualification standards for the debates. To qualify for the next round of debates in September, candidates will need to have at least 130,000 unique donors, in addition to meeting a polling requirement.
[See which Democrats are leading the 2020 presidential race.]
While the campaigns have been required to reveal their overall fund-raising totals, and many have released information about their number of donors, it has not been possible until now to estimate how many donors each Democratic candidate has attracted.
Our analysis is based in part on fund-raising records disclosed on Wednesday by ActBlue, an online fund-raising platform that processes donations for the Democratic candidates.
While the number of donors is especially important in the 2020 primary race, the amount of money that campaigns raise is ultimately what allows them to pay the bills. By that measure as well, Mr. Sanders leads in large parts of the country.
Candidates who have raised the most money
Darker shades on the map indicate a greater share of money raised.
1. Sanders
$36 million
1. Sanders
$36 million
2. Buttigieg
$32 million
2. Buttigieg
$32 million
3. Warren
$25 million
3. Warren
$25 million
4. Harris
$24 million
4. Harris
$24 million
5. Biden
$22 million
5. Biden
$22 million
6. O’Rourke
$13 million
6. O’Rourke
$13 million
Over all, Mr. Sanders is leading his rivals in total money raised, but not by a huge margin — even though he has far more donors than any of them.
Most other candidates are drawing in more dollars per donor — an estimated average of roughly $80 for both Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, for example. Mr. Sanders, on the other hand, has brought in an estimated $46 per donor.
Mr. Sanders’s campaign has tried to encourage larger contributions. “We have two choices: We need more donations or we need people to give just a bit more than they have before,” Faiz Shakir, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, wrote in an email in the spring.
While Mr. Sanders has a sprawling list of donors nationwide, geographic dominance does not necessarily translate into a cash advantage of the same magnitude. Just as population density differs in urban, suburban and rural areas, the number of people who donate to political campaigns also varies widely based on geography.
Ranking as the top Democrat for individual donors in a densely populated urban area is far different from leading the field in an area where few people are donating to campaigns.
For example, Ms. Warren has more donors in a single ZIP code in Brooklyn than any candidate has in the entire state of Mississippi. Mr. Buttigieg has more donors in a single ZIP code in Washington, D.C., than any candidate has in South Dakota.
Here’s a look at who has the largest number of individual donors in some major metropolitan areas.
New York City
Buttigieg
Sanders
Warren
New York City
Buttigieg
Sanders
Warren
Sanders
Boston
Buttigieg
Warren
Sanders
Boston
Buttigieg
Warren
Warren
Washington, D.C.
Harris
Buttigieg
Biden
Warren
Washington, D.C.
Harris
Buttigieg
Biden
Buttigieg
Chicago
Sanders
Buttigieg
Chicago
Sanders
Sanders
Buttigieg
Warren
Harris
Atlanta
Biden
Sanders
Buttigieg
Warren
Harris
Atlanta
Biden
San
Francisco
Warren
Buttigieg
Oakland
Sanders
Harris
San
Francisco
Warren
Buttigieg
Oakland
Sanders
Harris
Many Democratic candidates have struggled so far to develop a broad donor base across the nation, though in some cases they at least have bragging rights in their own backyard. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota has the largest number of donors in most of her state, as does Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana in his state.
Former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas, whose fund-raising slowed significantly after a strong start, leads the field in donors in most of his state.
Bernie Sanders
Senator from Vermont
746,000 Estimated donors
$36 million Total raised
Higher share of donors►
Elizabeth Warren
Senator from Massachusetts
421,000 Estimated donors
$25 million Total raised
Higher share of donors►
Pete Buttigieg
Mayor of South Bend, Ind.
390,000 Estimated donors
$32 million Total raised
Higher share of donors►
Kamala Harris
Senator from California
277,000 Estimated donors
$24 million Total raised
Higher share of donors►
Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Former vice president
256,000 Estimated donors
$22 million Total raised
Higher share of donors►
Beto O’Rourke
Former congressman from Texas
188,000 Estimated donors
$13 million Total raised
Higher share of donors►
Andrew Yang
Businessman
133,000 Estimated donors
$5 million Total raised
Julián Castro
Former housing secretary
110,000 Estimated donors
$4 million Total raised
Cory Booker
Senator from New Jersey
100,000 Estimated donors
$10 million Total raised
Tulsi Gabbard
Congresswoman from Hawaii
88,000 Estimated donors
$4 million Total raised
Amy Klobuchar
Senator from Minnesota
79,000 Estimated donors
$9 million Total raised
Jay Inslee
Governor of Washington State
78,000 Estimated donors
$5 million Total raised
Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator from New York
77,000 Estimated donors
$5 million Total raised
Marianne Williamson
Self-help author
75,000 Estimated donors
$3 million Total raised
Michael Bennet
Senator from Colorado
28,000 Estimated donors
$3 million Total raised
Steve Bullock
Governor of Montana
17,000 Estimated donors
$2 million Total raised
Seth Moulton
Congressman from Massachusetts
14,000 Estimated donors
$1 million Total raised
John Hickenlooper
Former governor of Colorado
14,000 Estimated donors
$3 million Total raised
Tim Ryan
Congressman from Ohio
10,000 Estimated donors
$1 million Total raised
John Delaney
Former congressman from Maryland
8,000 Estimated donors
$2 million Total raised
Bill de Blasio
Mayor of New York City
7,000 Estimated donors
$1 million Total raised
Methodology
Data includes individual donations reported by campaigns to the Federal Election Commission as well as those made through ActBlue, an online fund-raising platform that processes donations for Democratic candidates. These sources combined account for 94 percent of dollars donated to candidates by individuals. Information about donors giving $200 or less directly to a campaign is not available.
The number of individual donors was estimated based on the name and ZIP code of the donor. The New York Times approximated donors’ locations from their ZIP codes, then took a weighted average of the nearest donors for each location. Shapes are combined census tracts, each containing at least one donor.
Estimates of donor counts are based on data through June 30. Since then, Mr. Castro, Mr. Booker, Ms. Klobuchar and Ms. Gabbard reached the 130,000 donors needed to qualify for the next round of debates in September, according to their campaigns.