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Sanders Gets A Million Donations In April While Bankers Bern Up The Phones – 2.4 Million Berniecrats Donate To Date

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 12:03 PST, May 1, 2016


Bernie Sanders’ team announced on Sunday that almost 1 million donations came in to his presidential campaign fund in April. Donations in April totaling $25.8 million were less than March’s major haul, but still far exceeding the monthly average of $17 million. Though Sanders’ team noted a decline in monthly income in April compared to March, Berniecrats were still using their funds to fuel Sanders’ revolution. Following reports of voter suppression and possible election fraud, Bernie Sanders’ supporters diverted some of their cash earmarked for Sanders towards efforts to fight what they consider their only real roadblock between them and the presidency.

Fundraising efforts in April were deliberately split between Sanders’ campaign itself, legislators who say they support Sanders for president, the campaigns of superdelegates who have said they would vote for Sanders at the national convention, Election Justice U.S.A, the non-profit voters’ rights organization that sprouted up from the Arizona primary debacle, and many other organizations that have declared its members are “Feelin’ the Bern.” Berniecrats also donated to Democracy For America, which has a page specifically set aside to support important candidates who belong to Bernie Sanders’ revolution.

ActBlue made it especially easy for Berniecrats to find progressives to support in an effort to take back the Legislative Branch from the so-called “corporate elite.” ActBlue states that its purpose is to build grassroots fundraising efforts. Though Clinton supporters can use ActBlue to donate to her campaign efforts, the platform also allows donors to give to a multitude of candidates and charity organizations that support the progressive mission, the organization’s website states.

“ActBlue’s toolset is designed to scale for organizations both big and small. Everyone has access to the same features, data visualizations, and tools no matter their size. That means your small (but mighty) charity has access to the same fundraising tools as presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders.”

Another point that has been virtually ignored by mainstream media, which spent Sunday blasting Sanders for his decreased dollar haul in April, is that last month, Sanders’ supporters absolutely toppled all historic phone-banking efforts. In mid-April, Sanders’ campaign announced the unbelievable record-breaking number of phone calls made by Bernie’s phone-bankers. The campaign announced in an email that when it asked for phone-banking help, volunteers made calls at an epic volume.

In just two days, phone-bankers made more than 3 million phone calls, Political People announced. In a mere 48 hours, dedicated volunteers called about 1.2 percent of all of America. Though most newspapers are reporting April’s lowered financial contributions to Bernie’s campaign as an indicator of a cooling trend, the sheer volume of volunteers and donors indicates that Sanders supporters are “berning” hotter than ever.

By the end of April 2008, Obama received donations from 1.5 million people. At the end of April 2016, Senator Sanders has received donations from more than 2.4 million people. Senator Sanders has almost 1 million more donors than then-Senator Obama did at the same point on the campaign calendar eight years ago.

“What our campaign is doing is bringing millions of Americans into the political process,” Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said, according to Politico. “Sanders is the candidate with the most energy and excitement. He is the candidate with the best chance of winning in November. He is the candidate who is in the best position to bring a new generation of voters into the democratic process and restore the faith of working-class voters that we can have a government that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent.”

After a small group of Clinton supporters, alleged astroturfers, managed to trigger a Facebook auto-unpublish of several of the top Bernie Sanders groups, not only were the groups eventually republished by Facebook, but their numbers grew substantially. Revolt Against The Plutocracy also saw the number of people taking their Bernie-Or-Bust pledge skyrocket. As of May 1, over 92,500 people have pledged not to vote for Hillary Clinton in November if she becomes the Democrats choice after the convention.

A special report out of Kentucky on April 26 also brought good tidings for Berniecrats about Sanders’ campaign. In 2015, Clinton had far surpassed Sanders in Bluegrass contributions, but in 2016, Sanders’ cash flow from Kentucky has been accelerating, Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (KCIR) stated.

“For the third month in a row, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders raised more money in Kentucky than any of the other presidential candidates — and his Bluegrass cash flow is accelerating.”

Not only did Kentucky donate more money in recent months to Sanders than to Clinton, Sen. Sanders was given more money from Kentucky residents than Mrs. Clinton, Donald Trump, Sen. Cruz, and Gov. Kasich combined. Remarkably, donations to Democrats exceeded donations to Republicans in Kentucky in March in excess of two-and-a-half times, thanks almost entirely to Sanders’ supporters, KCIR declared. Kentucky is typically a red state.

Indiana’s primary will allocate the Hoosier delegates, and voters are looking at theoretical match-ups for November, according to NBC. On Tuesday, 92 delegates are on the table for the Democratic presidential candidates. Indiana is also a traditionally Republican state, but in a hypothetical general-election match-up, Trump only leads Sanders by one point. Their battle would be well within the margin of error, making Indiana seem a little more purple this election cycle if Sen. Sanders were to win the Democratic nomination. In a match-up between Trump and Mrs. Clinton, Indiana would remain GOP territory as Trump would lead by seven points over the former first lady.

The difference is even more significant against Kasich and Cruz in the Hoosier state. Indiana prefers Cruz over Clinton by seven points, but Sanders would actually beat Cruz in Indiana by three points. Kasich beats Bernie Sanders with a mere one-point lead while Kasich utterly squashes Hillary Clinton with a 19-point lead in the hypothetical match-up in Indiana. Nevertheless, Clinton is expected to beat Sanders by a very narrow lead and spit the state’s pledged delegates nearly in half with Sanders, according to polls.

Only three percent of all of Sanders’ donors have maxed out their contributions, making access to campaign funds free-flowing through November should the race end up favoring Sanders in pledged delegates and at the convention in July. Half of Clinton’s donors can no longer donate, having maxed out at their legal limit already. Teachers and engineers are the most commonly declared professions of Sanders’ donors, a press release declared.

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