Gillibrand ends campaign with $800k in cash on hand. What happens to the money?
Democratic New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is officially out of the 2020 race, so what happens to all the money she raised?
She has a handful of choices, according to a campaign finance nonprofit group.
Gillibrand finishes with under $800,000 cash on hand, according to her campaign. That's down from the roughly $8.2 million she had on hand at the end of June, according to Federal Election Commission documents.
"Gillibrand's campaign committee is permitted to donate the funds to charities, spend the money on another presidential candidate, transfer to a local, state or national party committee, donate to state and local candidates or transfer to a future election campaign committee," Corey Goldstone, a spokesperson for the Campaign Legal Center, told FOX Business. "A candidate is not permitted to use the remaining funds for personal uses."
At least three Democratic candidates besides Gillibrand have dropped out in the past few weeks. Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton dropped out with a little over $720,000, according to the most recent FEC filing. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper wasn't in much better shape, with $836,276, according to the FEC. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee had nearly $1.2 million.
Goldstone said he is watching whether Hickenlooper will use the money for his run for U.S. Senate.
"The most interesting ... is probably Hickenlooper, who is running to try and flip a seat in the U.S. Senate for Colorado, which will be a race with national interest," Goldstone said. "Since Hickenlooper just bowed out in August, we don’t know yet whether he has moved money from his nascent presidential campaign to his Senate campaign."
Gillibrand could not keep up with the party's most successful fundraisers, despite having more name recognition than some, like South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, at the beginning of the campaign cycle.
FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2018 file photo Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand speaks to supporters during an election night watch party in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Five of the top candidates each brought in more than $10 million in the second quarter. Gillibrand brought in only $2.3 million, although her campaign boasted that 95 percent of contributions were under $50.
Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Sen. Kamala Harris of California raised between $11.8 million and $24.9 million, The Washington Post reported.
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Over the entire fundraising cycle, Gillibrand's campaign committee haul of a little more than $5 million was dwarfed by her rivals like Biden and Sanders. Biden's campaign committee collected more than $21 million, while Sanders raised more than $46 million, according to Open Secrets. She gave her presidential campaign a financial boost in early 2019 by transferring $9.6 million from her Gillibrand for Senate campaign.