Kamala Harris raised $1.5M in first 24 hours of 2020 bid

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) has raised more than $1.5 million in online donations in the 24 hours since she announced her candidacy for president.

Harris’s press secretary, Ian Sams, tweeted Tuesday that the number included more than 38,000 individual donors, with the average donation hovering at $37.

NEWS – @KamalaHarris raised $1.5 MILLION online in first 24 hours. More than 38k individual donors.

Average contribution? $37.

— Ian Sams (@IanSams) January 22, 2019

Harris announced her candidacy on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

{mosads}Harris is the only declared 2020 candidate to release public fundraising numbers so far. Like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), two other presidential contenders, Harris has sworn off donations from corporate PACs, a decision she announced in April of last year.

“I’ve actually made a decision since I’ve had that conversation that I’m not going to accept corporate PAC checks,” Harris told hosts of “The Breakfast Club” last year.

“We’re all supposed to have an equal vote, but money has now really tipped the balance between an individual having equal power in an election to a corporation,” she added.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) touted small-dollar donations during his 2016 presidential run. At one point during the cycle, his campaign raised $3 million in mostly small-dollar donations over a period of four days early in 2015.

More than 170 candidates pledged during the 2018 midterm cycle to not accept money from corporate PACs, according to an Axios report, though such funding typically represents a small portion of overall fundraising.