Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced Wednesday that his campaign had hit its goal of 1 million individual contributions only hours before the third quarter’s campaign finance deadline.
The senator from Vermont has rapidly gained ground on Hillary Clinton over the past month and actually reached his fundraising milestone months faster than President Obama did in either of his campaigns. Obama announced he had collected 1,000,000 contributions for his first campaign in February of 2008 and again in October of 2011, prior to the 2012 election.
Though Sanders’ total contributions pale in comparison to those of Clinton — Sanders’ donors average less than $30 per contribution — his campaign has taken great pride in that it isn’t backed by a super PAC.
“This deadline is an opportunity to send a powerful message to the political media and the super PACs attacking us about the strength of our campaign,” Sanders posted in a fundraising message on Facebook. “Let’s make sure they hear us loud and clear.”