Warren announces almost $25 million fundraising haul, trailing Sanders but dwarfing Biden

LOS ANGELES — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has raised $24.6 million during the past three months, her campaign said Friday, beating her last quarter haul of $19.1 million and quadrupling her $6 million total from the first quarter of the year.

The announcement comes as Warren, who has eschewed high-dollar events in favor of targeting small-dollar donations — continues to solidify her place at or near the top of the Democratic presidential field in both polling and fundraising. She was outpaced only by fellow progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders — who leads the pack with $25.3 million raised in the third quarter — and dwarfed the fundraising totals announced Thursday by former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign. Biden raised $15.2 million in the third quarter.

Warren, Biden and Sanders have been rounding out the top three slots in the polls for much of the fall months.

According to the Warren campaign, she had 509,000 donors and received 943,000 donations in the third quarter of 2019, and the average donation was $26.

The Massachusetts senator finished the quarter with $25.7 million cash on hand, her campaign told NBC News.

In an email to supporters Friday morning, campaign manager Roger Lau noted where that money was going: grassroots outreach, ground game and recently announced ad buys across television and digital.

Those ad buys — which the campaign said would be worth eight figures in an end-of-September memo — target four key early voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. They mark the first paid ad effort from the Warren campaign.

In that same memo, the campaign announced field team expansions in states with primaries and caucuses further down the Democratic primary calendar, plus states with big down-ballot races for Democrats, such as Maine and Georgia.