You have to give it to the guy: Bernie Sanders is 78 years old, just suffered from a heart attack and now raised a record amount of 34.5 million dollars for his presidential campaign during the last quarter. The money is mostly coming from small donors, which shows the power of message driven fundraising (a point I wrote about in a previous blog post). According to the campaign, they have received five million individual donations.

It is also noteworthy just how consistent Sanders’ performance is. This is true foremost regarding his message, but also regarding his debate performance, performance on the stump and in the polling. This sort of consistency is a big advantage in a multi-candidate field. If one sees Sanders’ energy and drive, it’s kinda hard to believe that he is of the same generation as Joe Biden.

When Sanders suffered a heart attack a few weeks ago, most pundits wrote him off. It was also the time when Senator Elizabeth Warren rose in the polls. In view of this, Sanders performance is even more impressive. The endorsement and active campaigning by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played and continues to play an important role.

It is always a question how to strategically use an endorsement. The endorsement by AOC was used to underline that Sanders is not backing out, but is very serious about this fight. It helped to energize and expand his troops at a very crucial moment.

Now, I’m not saying that Sanders will win the nomination. But he for sure will have the money to continue the battle for the nomination for a long time. In an American presidential primary campaign, that is an important asset.