Ben Carson Has Way, Way More Small Donors Than Any Other Candidate (Including Bernie)

[DonViejo]

By Ben Mathis-Lilley

The two names atop this National Journal chart of 2016 presidential fundraising by candidate—Jeb "Jebley" Bush* and Hillary Clinton—probably won't surprise you. Both are name-brand figures who are considered somewhere from likely to certain to win their parties' nominations. The real standout factoid is further down the chart next to neurosurgeon Ben Carson's name:



What that means: Some 49,200 people have given $10,000 or less to Carson's candidate committees, super PACs, and candidate leadership committees, which is by far the largest number of small (or small-ish) donors associated with any candidate. Compare Carson, for example, with the Democrats' surgin' grassroots phenom, Bernie Sanders:



The only other candidate who even comes close to having half of Carson's small donors is Clinton, who has 23,300.

Carson's appeal to hard-core conservatives—he's an accomplished doctor but also a right-wing paranoiac who's said, for example, that prison can make you gay—was examined by GQ's Jason Zengerle earlier this year in a profile titled "What if Sarah Palin Were a Brain Surgeon?" Carson is currently running somewhere between fourth and sixth in GOP 2016 polls.

* "Jebley" is not actually Jeb Bush's nickname.

Update, 12:25 p.m.: If you're curious, as I was, how Carson's totals compare with Obama's famous small-donor base in the 2008 election, here's a New York Times article from April 2007 that says the Obama campaign claimed approximately 100,000 direct donors (i.e., those who gave directly to the campaign and thus were limited by law to individual donations well under $10,000) in the first quarter of that year alone. (The Clinton campaign said it had about 50,000 donors in that period.)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/08/03/ben_carson_small_donor_hero.html?

[pnwmom]

1. I've been guessing from the beginning that he would end up being their nominee.

My son says I'm crazy and the party would never allow that. But I don't see the party controlling Trump, so how would they control Carson?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

6. I don't see it.

Between the racists and those pragmatics who simply see him as not electable, he won't win.

He's been in the race since almost right after the 2012 election, so I can see why he has some cash behind him.

My white teabagger uncle supports him and had a sticker on his car as far back as spring of 2014.

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. I agree with your son (not the crazy part), but that is NEVER going to happen. However, he may be...

a running mate.

[pnwmom]

12. You're probably right; he may be more likely to end up as their VP candidate.

But I predict he'll be somewhere on the ticket because sooner or later they'll act on their belief that the only reason President Obama got elected was because he was black.

[virtualobserver]

2. That chart is utter nonsense

Last edited Mon Aug 3, 2015, 04:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Bernie's $15 million came from 400,000 donors and 99% were donations under $250.

*******correction 250,000 donors and 40000 donations*******

[George II]

3. Not true at all.

Read the reports - Sanders had 250,000 DONORS but received 400,000 DONATIONS. Big difference, meaning there were 150,000 multiple donations from donors.

And someone could have given two $249 donations, hiding the fact that a DONOR contributed more than $250.

[virtualobserver]

5. my mistake, but that chart said Bernie only had 5900 donors- that chart is totally bogus

big difference between 5900 and 250,000

Bernie's 250,000 donors are five times Carson's 49.2K

The article is very poorly researched.

[Tarheel_Dem]

11. The article is about "small donors". n/t

[virtualobserver]

13. It defines Carson's small donors as people who have given $10,000 or less....

to Carson's candidate committees

All 250,000 of Bernie's donors gave less than that.

[Tarheel_Dem]

15. "Individual" donors is not the same as "Small" donors. There's a distinction.

The only other candidate who even comes close to having half of Carson's small donors is Clinton, who has 23,300.

[virtualobserver]

16. That article DEFINES small donors as those who have given less than $10,000

it says that Bernie only had 5900 of those......In reality,.ALL of Bernie's 250,000 donors gave $2700 or less.

[Tarheel_Dem]

17. Why would it upset you that Carson has some 40k more small donors than BS? It's early days.

[virtualobserver]

19. It wouldn't upset me. It just isn't true.

The math is clear. Why are you defending an article that is obviously not true?
This is a poorly researched article.

[former9thward]

18. It is not even legal to give $10,000.

ALL of everyone's donors are $2700 or less. That is the max you can give.

[virtualobserver]

20. This article is combining regular campaign contributions and SuperPAC donations

so some of the donations could be more than $10,000 for some of the candidates.

[George II]

4. CNN: "400,000 donations came from about 250,000 individual donors"

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02/politics/bernie-sanders-fundraising/

[daleanime]

7. +1

[SummerSnow]

8. Carson wouldn't even vote himself cause he's black

he would go to the polls and vote for Bush

[brooklynite]

9. Observed: Hillary Clinton has 4 times the number of "<$10,000" donors that Sanders has.

[virtualobserver]

14. utter nonsense

Bernie's donations were to his campaign.

The max is $2700

All 250,000 of his donors had to have given less than $10,000

[MannyGoldstein]

21. Perhaps it's partly due to Carson's religious sect

Seventh-Day Adventists. They seem to be pretty committed and insuler.