Analyst Vanessa Williamson said on Monday that it could be harder for President Trump to attract small-dollar donors for his reelection campaign, now that he is established in Washington.
“I think the real question to me is whether Donald Trump has an appeal with the sort of people who could be small-dollar donors now that he’s actually president,” Williamson, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking.”
“When he was running a campaign, he claimed to be running against Washington,” he continued. “I think it’s so much harder to make that case now.”
The president broke Republican records in 2016 by raising large amounts of money through small-dollar donations.
Trump’s reelection campaign raised more than $30 million in the first quarter of 2019, more than the combined fundraising hauls of Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), two other 2020 hopefuls.
More than a dozen Democratic contenders are vying for the 2020 presidential nomination, and signs are emerging that donors are waiting to see how the field shakes out before going all-in behind one candidate.
The Trump campaign told The Associated Press that nearly 99 percent of the donations it received were of $200 or less. The average donation was about $34.
The campaign’s first-quarter fundraising haul brings its cash on hand to more than $40 million.
— Julia Manchester
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