Center for Public Integrity senior reporter Dave Levinthal appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” program on Oct. 24 to detail the influence and importance of small-dollar donors in the 2016 presidential election. He also spoke more generally about how much money campaigns, nonprofits and super PACs are raising and spending.
Small-dollar donors are classified as those who give less then $200.
Democratic presidential candidate and independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders raised $26 million during the third quarter of this– 77 percent of those donations came from small-dollar donors.
Republican Ben Carson, who raised more campaign cash during the third-quarter than any other GOP White House contender at $20.8 million, can thank small-dollar donors for nearly 60 percent of his donations. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump raised $3.9 million, with small-dollar donors accounting for about 70 percent of his total.
Levinthal is part of the veteran, award-winning reporting team at the Center for Public Integrity covering the influence of money in both federal and state elections.