‘Beto for America’ fundraising begins immediately after O’Rourke enters 2020 race

The presidential campaign for Beto O’Rourke isn’t starting from scratch when it comes to building a donor base or a war chest.

Hours after O’Rourke’s announcement video hit the airwaves and the internet, the solicitations began in the form of texts to those who supported his U.S. Senate run and an email from O’Rourke himself.

The fundraising effort for the El Pasoan’s first federal campaign was remarkable. The race against incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 was the most expensive senate campaign in history, with O’Rourke managing to raise more than $80 million.

The former congressman had said in 2018 that he wouldn’t accept money from political action committees, or PACs, and a tweet around 9 a.m. Thursday said the same thing. The website OpenSecrets.org found that almost half of his contributions, or $36.7 million, came in amounts of less than $200. While most of the money was from Texas, 44 percent of donors were from out-of-state.

As for that $80 million: according to the Federal Elections Commission, O’Rourke spent almost all of it. The Senate campaign treasure chest has $286,531.29 remaining. The FEC told ABC-7 that the leftover funds may be transferred to a presidential committee.

O’Rourke registered the Beto For America candidacy and committee with the FEC on Thursday morning. While the campaign could disclose the early fundraising results on its own, it is required to file that information to the FEC by April 15.

CNN reported that fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders raised $5,925,771 from 223,047 individual contributors across all 50 states in the first 24 hours after he announced his 2020 candidacy.

The Guardian also reported that donations made to Sanders’ campaign came from all 50 states and averaged $27.