Booker meets fundraising goal, will stay in presidential race

Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) White House campaign said that it met its goal of raising $1.7 million dollars a Monday deadline and announced the senator will continue his bid for the presidency. 

Booker’s campaign raised $1,783,504 in the nine-day campaign since making the plea to voters. 

“When we made the decision to be completely honest with folks about where we stood and what we needed to raise to put this campaign on a path to be successful, we didn’t know how people would respond,” Booker said in a statement.

{mosads}“I’ve been overwhelmed by the response, and I couldn’t be more grateful to everyone who pitched in. This moment is a testimony to the power of what’s possible when people unite in common purpose and work toward a shared goal.”

The campaign announced in a memo more than a week ago it would need to raise the nearly $2 million by Sept. 30 or Booker would have to drop out of the race.

The campaign said the more than $1.7 million raised came from more than 40,000 donations from all 50 states, plus D.C. and Puerto Rico.

In Monday’s announcement, Booker also made another plea to raise an additional $217,000 by the end of the day to pass $2 million for the time period.

Booker has fallen behind the top-tier candidates as the primary field has narrowed. 

According to a RealClearPolitics average of polling, Booker is ninth in the field and trails the front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, by 26.3 points. 

Booker’s plea to donors came ahead of the Democratic National Committee raising the donor threshold for candidates to make the debate stage in November and December.

Candidates need to collect donations from as many as 165,000 unique donors, including a minimum of 600 donors per state in at least 20 states.

Some candidates appear to have already met the new donor threshold, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Candidates also have to register at least 3 percent in four or more qualifying polls or 5 percent in two single-state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada, to qualify for the upcoming debates.