

The former Texas congressman's campaign says it saw donations soar after the last Democratic presidential debate in Houston, when O'Rourke declared, "Hell yes, we're gonna take your AR-15, your AK-47." That was a reference to a mandatory buyback of assault-style weapons that he's proposed.

His totals were better than the $3.6 million O'Rourke raised during the second quarter.

They pale in comparison, however, to the $6-plus million O'Rourke took in during his campaign's first 24 hours alone, on his way to collecting $9.4 million during the first quarter, which featured just 18 days of campaigning.


This story has been updated to correct that O'Rourke's first quarter total was $9.4 million, not nearly $25 million.