Biden leads candidates — including Trump — in Nevada itemized donations
CARSON CITY — Joe Biden lagged three other Democratic presidential candidates in overall fundraising for the most recent quarter, but in Nevada, he again led all comers in contributions received from bigger donors during that period.
Counting itemized individual contributions — named donors with individual contributions of $200 or more — Biden led not only fellow Democrats but also President Donald Trump, who ran second in the state for itemized contributions. Biden took more than twice as much from named donors as Trump.
Here are more details on the Silver State’s contributions to presidential candidates and other takeaways from the third-quarter reports submitted Tuesday.
Biden agains leads Nevada
The former vice president raked in roughly $219,000 from named donors during the quarter, followed by Trump at just over $108,000. Rounding out Nevada’s top five were Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, with approximately $102,000; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, at roughly $48,000; and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, with about $35,500.
Those numbers contrast with the candidates’ national figures for the quarter. Sanders led with $25.2 million in contributions, followed by Warren at $24.6 million, Buttigieg at $19.1 million and Biden at $15.7 million. Trump amassed $14.2 million for the quarter.
The leaderboard for Nevada differs for the six months from April to October, though Biden still led with $629,000 from bigger donors. He was followed by Trump with $295,000, Sanders with $144,000, California Sen. Kamala Harris with $87,000 and Warren with $81,000.
What about small donors?
Nationwide during the third quarter, only 31 percent of Biden’s contributions came from small, unnamed donors — individual contributions of less than $200. In contrast, Sanders and Warren amassed 60 percent or more of their total from such donations. Candidates typically tout a higher ratio of small donors to big donors as a sign of grassroots appeal.
Campaign financials submitted to the Federal Election Commission don’t break out state-specific figures for unitemized individual donations, and candidate committees did not have those figures available Wednesday.
For a rough picture, however, taking the same ratio of big to small donors seen nationally and applying it to individual states, Biden’s advantage in the Silver State would decline somewhat, based on his lower rate of small donor contributions.
Nevada’s share nationally
About 2 percent of Biden’s $10.8 million in itemized contributions came from Nevada — small, to be sure, but the state’s biggest showing, in percentage terms, among the leading candidates. The same figure was 1.4 percent for Trump, 1 percent for Sanders and 0.5 percent or less for Warren and Buttigieg.
The bottom five
In Nevada, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker took in roughly $10,250 each from named donors. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke received $9,600, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard got $4,500, and former HUD Secretary Julián Castro took $3,100. They were also the bottom five recipients nationally for the quarter.
Nevada’s cities
As could be expected, the top Nevada cities by population typically gave the most. In dollar terms, most Silver State money that went to the top five candidates came from donors in Las Vegas. But the cities of Henderson and Reno, respectively Nos. 2 and 3 in population, often went in reverse order for contributions. North Las Vegas, No. 4 by population, was never in the top five for contributions to individual candidates.
The donation spread among Nevada cities and towns varied substantially among candidates. For example, nearly 86 percent of Biden’s large donor haul in Nevada came from Las Vegas, but only 38 percent of Warren’s did. Buttigieg listed donations from 14 Nevada localities; the Trump campaign listed donations from 36.
Contact Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-0661. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter.