Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) broke with the general friendliness that has characterized how the 2020 Democratic contenders have spoken about each other so far, sending out a fundraising blast where he calls Beto O’Rourke’s $6.1 million first-day haul “bad news.”
The subject line reads: “Bad news: Beto outraised us. Good news: we probably had a lot more donations.”
“Here is the truth: this morning, Beto O’Rourke announced that he raised more money than us on the first day of his presidential campaign,” the email says. “The good news is, we more than likely had a lot more individual donations than he did.”
“But what that means is if we are going to avoid getting outspent, it’s going to take lots and lots of people making individual donations to catch up,” it continues. “We already have that… but we have to pick up the pace.”
O’Rourke topped Sanders’ first-day sum, $5.9 million, which had previously led the pack. He is unlikely to hit back at the Vermont senator, since he has pledged to keep his campaign positive.
