John Hickenlooper last month was told by his some of his senior aides to drop out of the Democratic presidential race and run for a Senate seat in Colorado, Politico reports.
Sources told the news outlet the lack of unique donors was a sticking point – the Democratic National Committee in May announced it was increasing the qualification thresholds for the September and October primary debates to 130,000 unique donors and Hickenlooper only has 13,000.
Additionally, one source said Hickenlooper's campaign could run out of money soon if no changes are made – the former Colorado governor has raised just over $1 million in the second quarter of 2019.
Hickenlooper on Tuesday blamed his former staff for his standing among the crowded Democratic field, and his outgoing communications director told Politico on Monday that campaign manager Brad Komar and finance director Dan Sorenson are no longer with the campaign.
"I will also be transitioning out over the next few weeks," Lauren Hitt said.
Hickenlooper told MSNBC's Craig Melvin he "thought it was time to make a change. You know, these campaigns are long, hard campaigns and you don't always get it right with the first team."
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