Andrew Yang raises $10 million in third quarter
Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang announced Wednesday his campaign raised $10 million in the third quarter of 2019, more than tripling what he raised last quarter.
According to the campaign, Yang will go into the end of 2019 with $6.3 million on hand, a total he raised largely with the help of small-dollar donors. The campaign says the average donation to the Yang campaign is about $30.18, and more than 99% of all online donations were under $200.
Yang teased the number on Monday after a rally in Los Angeles, saying the fundraising haul would demonstrate that his campaign is "one of the only true growth stories in 2020."
"Whereas some of the other campaigns that we look at, they're plateauing or in some cases contracting. And we're growing by multiples," Yang told reporters.
The news comes as the Yang campaign expands its presence in Iowa and New Hampshire. Yang opened two new offices in Iowa in September and is hiring more full-time staff in both of the early states.
The Yang campaign has hyped the news for weeks. In September, Yang told CBS News he was going to have a "record breaking" third quarter and that his campaign would be in a position to succeed long-term.
"We're going to have the resources to compete everywhere in the country. And we're going to have a combination of traditional infrastructure and smart investments that we think are more appropriate to 2019 and 2020," Yang said.
Yang had a particularly successful end to the quarter. Days after announcing a "Freedom Dividend Pilot Program" at the September Democratic Presidential Debate, in which 10 Americans would be selected to receive $1,000 a month for one year to test Yang's signature policy proposal, his campaign announced it had received more than $1 million in donations.
Towards the end of the cycle, the campaign made a last-minute push for an additional $1.5 million, then extended the goal to $2 million after Yang hit his target before the September 30 deadline.
Yang raised just $1.7 million and $2.8 million in the first and second quarters, respectively.
Though still a longshot bid, Yang's campaign is relatively well-positioned going into the fall, even in comparison with some of his more experienced primary competitors. He will be one of 12 candidates on stage for the October 15 Democratic presidential debate and is one poll away from qualifying for the fifth debate in November. Only five candidates have qualified so far.
