The Other McCain

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Marianne Williamson Hits 65,000 Donor Threshold, Qualifies for DNC Debates

Posted on | May 10, 2019 | Comments Off on Marianne Williamson Hits 65,000 Donor Threshold, Qualifies for DNC Debates

Two weeks ago, I reported that Marianne Williamson was within 9,000 of reaching the 65,000-donor threshold that the Democratic National Committee had established to qualify for next month’s first televised debates in Miami. On Monday, her campaign sent out an email saying they needed just 3,500 new donors. So you could do the math and see they’d added about 5,000 in two weeks and thus were probably within 10 days or so of hitting the mark. But then late Thursday night, Williamson appeared on Shannon Bream’s Fox News show:

 

BOOM! The Williamson campaign announced they’re hit the number:

Today we made our goal of 65,000 unique donors to the Marianne Williamson for President campaign!
I am deeply grateful to those of you who took it upon yourselves to help create this significant achievement. Ours has been – and will continue to be – a campaign of ideas that people care about, and that they are willing to stand behind. It takes a certain kind of audacity to take a stand for something truly new. Thank you to those of you who have seen the possibility of a new American beginning and have been willing to invest in its formation.
Now the next phase of our work begins. . . .

What is “the next phase”? Well, among other things, they need to get their poll numbers up. Eighteen candidates have already qualified for the debates by the DNC’s standards, and if more than 20 qualify, polls will be the tie-breaker. They’ve reached 1% in the CNN poll, so at least there’s that, but with five weeks or so until the cut-off date, now the Williamson campaign will have to be spending some of their money.

As of March 31, she had about $500,000 cash on hand, and what can be expected is that the campaign will keep working its list of small donors with emails: “How about another $25 or $50?” Suppose that 5,000 respond to such an appeal for an average donation of just $20 — that’s $100,000 right there. So my guess is that Williamson could easily raise another half-million between now and mid-June, turn that around and spend it on digital ads, thus raising awareness of her campaign enough to boost her poll numbers. If she just got to 2%, she’d be in the top eight, according to the Real Clear Politics average.

Checking her schedule, I see Williamson is going to South Carolina next week, and will have an event May 20 in Washington, D.C., that I’ve already signed up for, before heading off to New Hampshire May 21-23, but I don’t know yet if I’ll be making that trip. Anyway, think back to March, when I first took notice of the Williamson campaign, and now she’s qualified for the debates. Can I pick ’em, or what?



 

Category: Democrats, Election

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