As the Democratic candidate field for the 2020 Presidential race becomes increasingly crowded, the dollars available to support their campaigns likewise becomes more and more diluted. On Monday, California Senator and one of those candidates, Kamala Harris, announced she has raised $12 million from more than 215,000 individual contributors in the first quarter of 2019. More than $1.1 million was raised in the final week of March. This quarter-end push, with more than 11,000 of those contributors working in education, comes as no surprise after a late March announcement that Harris plans to start funding education with a $12,200 increase to the average Iowa teacher’s salary and an overall average raise of $13,500 nationwide. Harris, who officially launched her campaign on Jan. 21, reported the average online contribution was $28. She also says she is soliciting funds only for the primary election and will not accept any support from corporate PACs or federal lobbyists. Harris’ campaign manager, Juan Rodriguez, says they are excited by the show of support they are seeing. “This is a campaign powered by the people, focused on making health care right, putting $500 a month in the pockets of working Americans and giving every public school teacher in America a raise,” he says.
