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Report: Kamala Harris Has Collected More Than Double the Donations of Other Presidential Candidates from Wealthy Black Communities

As presidential hopefuls make the rounds throughout America to drum up donations and support for their platforms, Sen. Kamala Harris is reportedly leading the pack in wealthy nonwhite donations.

The Democratic presidential hopeful has broken into Black and minority communities in cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Houston as well as the suburbs of Washington and South Florida. That move has been made in order to obtain over twice the amount of donations from wealthy contributors, according to a May 8 analysis by NBC News. These areas see the biggest numbers of nonwhite residents in their neighborhoods.

Sen. Kamala Harris far outstrips other Democratic presidential hopefuls in her ability to raise campaign contributions in more well-off nonwhite communities. (Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

“That is indicative of the efforts that Harris has put into making donors from the minority community feel welcome and supported and aware of the fact that there are donors in the black community that generally haven’t been touched in the way that this campaign has,” said Susan Pease Langford, an attorney and mother-in-law to former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed who co-hosted the Atlanta fundraiser in April.

By using data from the Census Bureau’s 2013-17 survey to create measures of the racial makeup of ZIP codes that were cross-referenced with Federal Election Commission quarterly filings last month for the committees of the major Democratic candidates, NBC News was able to deduce the following:

Of the top four hopefuls raking in the most funds from minority communities, Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Cory Booker fall behind Harris. She pulled in at least $1 million in the ZIP codes where the majority of residents were nonwhite. Within those same neighborhoods, O’Rourke raised more than $408,000, Sanders collected $406,600 and Booker came in fourth place with at least $391,000.

Other Democratic hopefuls, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, did not crack the $250,000 mark in non-white communities.

Specifically zooming in on the numbers from Prince George’s County, Maryland, where some of the wealthiest Black residents reside in the Washington suburbs, the draw from majority Black neighborhoods is apparent. The NBC analysis revealed Harris raised more than $26,000 from 17 mostly Black ZIP codes, including $11,000 from 20721. In that ZIP code, the median income is more than $120,000 per year and the Census Bureau reports the population is 85 percent Black.

Angelique Cannon, the national finance director for Harris’ campaign, said hitting these areas are all part of Harris’ strategy.

“Our hope is to engage communities of supporters who too often don’t get the kind of engagement and outreach they deserve, and we have new donors inspired by Kamala who have never been involved in the political process before,” Cannon said to NBC News. “We’re proud that we have engaged supporters in diverse communities like Atlanta, Cleveland and Houston, among others — and we’re having success because people believe in Kamala’s vision, they know she is the best candidate to beat Trump, and they are inspired to be a part of her historic campaign.”

The financial support in Atlanta, where her campaigning was aided by Eugene Duffy, who worked with the late former city Mayor Maynard Jackson, could translate to votes, according to political operative Goldie Taylor.

“With this money machine comes on-the-ground support,” said the Atlanta-based chief strategy officer and author. “This machine has the ability to turn out in all of metro Atlanta’s eight counties. If you can win this machine, you can win the Georgia Democratic primary.”

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