Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's barnstorming with Sen. Bernie Sanders apparently has paid fundraising dividends. In a Federal Elections Commission filing Tuesday, the congresswoman reported collecting $9.6 million in the first three months of the year, more than twice her previous top quarter, per Politico. The two Democrats have been drawing large crowds of supporters across the country on Sanders' "Fighting Oligarchy" tour since February, per the Guardian. Their crowd set a local record in Tempe, Arizona, for instance, and the showing in Denver of about 34,000 people was the biggest of Sanders' career.
There's another reason for the heightened interest in Ocasio-Cortez: Democratic anger over Sen. Chuck Schumer's support of the Republican bill to fund the government has led to pressure for a new Senate minority leader. That could start with Ocasio-Cortez challenging her fellow New Yorker in the 2028 primary. "The people are sending Democrats a message about the direction they would like to see," Faiz Shakir, a Sanders adviser, posted on X after the finance report was filed. By comparison, Schumer reported raising $144,742 in the first quarter, per CNBC.
Ocasio-Cortez has always drawn mostly small donations, and that happened this time, too. She posted that the average amount was $21. Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben, her campaign manager, said in a statement that first-time donors accounted for 64% of the total. Ocasio-Cortez, who now has more than $8 million in cash on hand, thanked her benefacts by saying, "Your support has allowed us to rally people together at record scale to organize their communities." (More Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stories.)
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