Presidential hopeful and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren (D.) said she does not know why her fundraising numbers are in decline.
"I actually don't know why the numbers are a little bit off, but I will say this: What's been happening is we just keep building on it," she said on MSNBC Monday night.
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow asked Warren about her falling fundraising hauls, noting that she had taken in less money in the last quarter and had fallen behind Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).
Warren did not specify how she planned to boost receipts but said that she is proud of the large number of grassroots donations her campaign has received. She also told Maddow that she was "at a standing stop" when she first jumped in to the race, adding that she "built this from scratch."
As she prepared to enter the race last February, Warren transferred $10.4 million from her 2018 Senate campaign to her presidential coffers. Much of that haul was raised from "the same donor class she is now running against," the New York Times reported, with Warren cashing in on private, lavishly catered fundraisers in Manhattan, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Martha's Vineyard.
Warren raised $21.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, trailing Sanders ($34.5 million), Buttigieg ($24.7 million), and Biden ($22.7 million). Warren's total marked a $3.5 million decline from the third quarter of 2019, when she raised $24.6 million.
Warren is also trailing her opponents in early battleground states, according to recent polling. She commands 16 percent support in Iowa, 7 points behind the three-way tie of Biden, Buttigieg, and Sanders. She is in third place in New Hampshire at 18 percent support, 9 points behind Sanders and 7 points behind Biden.