Beto O’Rourke Raised a Stunning $6.1 Million in the First 24 Hours of His Campaign

That’s more than any other Democrat running for president—so far.

Sandra Dahdah/ZUMA

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Beto O’Rourke raised a massive $6.1 million in the first 24 hours of launching his presidential bid, his campaign announced Monday morning, outpacing the launch day haul of every other candidate for the Democratic nomination, including Bernie Sanders.

“In just 24 hours, Americans across this country came together to prove that it is possible to run a true grassroots campaign for president—a campaign by all of us, for all of us, that answers not to the PACs, corporations, and special interests but to the people,” O’Rourke said in a statement.

The stunning figure comes after some expressed skepticism at O’Rourke’s decision to enter the already-crowded field of Democratic presidential hopefuls last week. O’Rourke’s roll-out specifically drew criticism on social media, with some saying his video announcement hinted of sexism. Others, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, notably eye-rolled O’Rourke’s “born to run” quote from the Vanity Fair cover story that coincided his announcement. 

But O’Rourke’s fundraising announcement on Monday will likely dispel some of the initial cynicism.

For more on what you need to know about O’Rourke’s candidacy—including how he transformed fundraising models and why it may ultimately be best not to overthink his loss to Sen. Ted Cruz—head to our story here.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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