Sanders Campaign Touts Fundraising Record Following NH Win

The Bernie Sanders campaign has said it has broken its own fundraising record by bringing in more than $5 million just since the Vermont senator's landslide win over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary.

According to a statement posted Wednesday by the campaign,

In the 18 hours since the polls closed in the Granite State, his campaign has raised more than $5.2 million, shattering the campaign's previous record for money raised in less than a day. The average donation since Sanders' speech is $34.

That amount, the Wall Street Journalreports, "is a quarter of what Mr. Sanders raised in the entire month of January, when he outpaced Mrs. Clinton's fundraising for the first time."

As BuzzFeed Newsexplains, "The Sanders homepage was converted to a New Hampshire-oriented fundraising page Tuesday evening in advance of what aides hoped would be a good showing for the Vermont senator."

After claiming victory Tuesday night, Sanders sent supporters to the site, telling the crowd, "I am going to New York City tonight and tomorrow, but I'm not going to New York City to hold a fundraiser on Wall Street.

"Instead, I'm going to hold a fundraiser right here, right now, across America," he said. "My request is please go to BernieSanders.com and contribute. Please help us raise the funds we need, whether it's $10 bucks, $20 bucks, or $50 bucks. Help up us raise the money we need to take the fight to Nevada, South Carolina, and the states on Super Tuesday."

The campaign has already boasted that it had the highest number of contributions for a White House bid, breaking the record held by President Barack Obama in 2011.

Sanders and Clinton will square off again on Thursday in Milwaukee for their next debate, hosted by PBS and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Bill Glauber describes the debate as

an opportunity [for Sanders] to press his advantage before a nationwide audience that may not yet be fully focused on a politician who calls himself a democratic socialist.

For Clinton, it's a chance to reset the race after a staggering election blow as the primary calendar turns to states that appear to be more favorable for her brand of politics.

The debate being held in Wisconsin is significant, Politicoreports, because it's "one of the country's most politically divided states, having elected a very conservative governor three consecutive elections, but also going for President Obama twice and liberal Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin in 2012. The state has been a focal point of several thorny political issues: labor disputes, public education, and voter ID law, among others. For now, Clinton is maintaining a slim lead in polling in the state. Her campaign has also amped up its attacks against Sanders; Bill Clinton took to the stump this week to thump Bernie's campaign for alleged hypocrisy."