Bernie Sanders says he raised a whopping $25 million in January and will use his presidential campaign�s flush bank account to increase television and digital advertising in 10 states.

The Vermont senator spent $50 million during the final three months of 2019 and finished the year with $18.2 million in cash on hand, putting him in a stronger position than many of his rival candidates even before his latest bonanza last month. Partial results show Sanders in a near tie for first with Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, in Monday�s leadoff Iowa caucuses.

New Hampshire hold its primary next Tuesday.

Sanders� campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, announced Thursday that his candidate will immediately increase staffing in states that vote during the Democratic primary�s Super Tuesday, on March 3. The campaign also plans to spend $5.5 million on television and digital ads in eight new states voting then: Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.

And Sanders will expand ad buys the campaign already made in California and Texas, the two largest states voting on Super Tuesday.

�Bernie�s multiracial, multigenerational, people-driven movement for change is fueling 2020�s most aggressive campaign for president,� Shakir said in a statement, saying the campaign is �in a strong position to compete in states all over the map.�

January was the Sanders campaign�s best fundraising month to date, featuring donations from 648,000 people, including 219,000 new donors, the statement said. Since announcing his presidential campaign in February 2019, Sanders has raised more than $121 million, built on donations from more than 1.5 million people. That total doesn�t include an additional $12.7 million in transfers all made in 2019 from Sanders� other federal accounts, the campaign said.

(AP)