Updated Tuesday at 3:33 p.m.

Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) presidential campaign announced Tuesday that it raised $25.3 million from July through September — more than any of the candidate's Democratic rivals have collected in a single quarter. The money came in the form of 1.4 million donations averaging $18.07 a pop, the campaign said.

Sanders' third-quarter haul exceeded the roughly $18 million he raised in the first and second quarters of this year — and it nearly matched the $26.2 million he took in exactly four years ago, when he was emerging as the chief alternative to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Later Tuesday, the Sanders campaign made clear how it will spend some of its newly raised cash: on its first television advertisement of the 2020 election. The spot, called “Fights for Us,” will debut in Iowa on Thursday as part of a $1.3 million ad buy.

It features Sanders describing his working class upbringing — a topic he typically avoids — and contrasts his record with that of President Donald Trump, who a narrator describes as a “dangerous demagogue tearing our nation apart.”
Campaigns are not required to file detailed fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission until October 15, so it is impossible to verify the figures Sanders' campaign provided, dig into the details or compare them to those of his opponents. As of midafternoon Tuesday, only two others had announced their quarterly results: South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised $19.1 million while Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) raised $6 million.

The Sanders campaign said it had raised a total of $61.5 million from 3.3 million donations since the start of the race. It did not say how much the campaign spent, nor how much money it had in the bank.

In a written statement, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir argued that the organization's fundraising success countered an emerging narrative that the senator from Vermont is trailing other candidates. "Media elites and professional pundits have tried repeatedly to dismiss this campaign, and yet working-class Americans keep saying loudly and clearly that they want a political revolution," Shakir said.

Other Sanders campaign staffers took to Twitter to crow about the haul, with some alluding to a Politico Magazine story published Monday entitled "Bernie Sanders Is in Trouble."

"Oh my. Looks like we're in trouble!" Midwest press secretary Bill Neidhardt wrote.

"Campaign in peril," western press secretary Joe Calvello responded.