When Beto O’Rourke announced his candidacy for president, he was a bit coy with his fundraising figures, initially “choosing” not to release the 24-hour number. This raised red flags because sharing (good) fundraising figures is an excellent way to raise more funds. People like a winner. Most assumed that this meant that Beto’s first 24 hours of fundraising were disastrous, and a narrative began to emerge.
That is, until Beto reversed course on his one quote and chose to release his staggering fundraising figure: $6.1 million raised in 24 hours—more than Bernie Sanders’ whopping $5.9 million total.
First off: Beto’s almost certainly not lying. Reports like these are required by law. Secondly, if he were lying, he would have to change his figure when he publicly files with the FEC so as to avoid breaking the law. There is no way that Beto is dumb enough to lie about how much money he raised only to backtrack on it later. That would be an unmitigated disaster.
Which brings me to the conspiracy theory about Beto’s fundraising numbers that is starting to make inroads on the left. This would be comically illegal if it were true.
He released only his total at first. Why because it beat Bernie's total. It took about few days to release the number of donors.
Why? As he said: In his very first "presidential campaign" email, O'Rourke touted the "first 24" hours as key to assessing the viability of his campaign: "What we raise in the first 24 hours will set the tone in the national conversation about the viability of our campaign.”
He did not beat Bernie in that...so he suppressed it for a couple of days.
SpunkySenior 