Biggest money comes from the jobless for Bernie Sanders’ campaign

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders is depending on small-dollar contribution of 27 U.S. dollars to wage through his presidential primary. It turned out that his biggest donors are the jobless.

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday its analysis on donor occupations through the Federal Election Commission and ActBlue.com where campaign money is donated for Sander’s camp. Out of some 7 million small-dollar donors to Sanders, 28.6 percent turned out to be the unemployed or the retired, followed by people in medical sector (7.4 %), education (7.2 %), IT and technology (5.1 %), art and entertainment (4.4 %), construction (3.5 %) and legal circles (2.6 %).

While his supporters have not been able to donate a one-time sizable contribution, they have made small but multiple donations as if they save their money at the bank. On average, they donated 96 dollars on three installments. Some even contributed more than 100 times to 2,200 dollars.

Most of the small contributions came from Vermont, his constituency, Washington City and Washington State. Money also came from states with progressive tendency such as New England, California, Washing and Oregon. The Wall Street that Sanders picked as a target of reform gave as little as 2 percent contribution.

The jobless opened its meager pocket because Sanders has consistently criticized mainstream political and financial circles, contending to ease the inequality of wealth. His campaign pledges of reformation in the Wall Street, free education at national universities, health insurance for the entire nation and 15-dollar of minimum wage have been well received by the working class people.

황인찬기자 hic@donga.com