WASHINGTON — Former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas raised $9.4 million over the first 18 days of his presidential bid, his campaign said on Wednesday.

The total, which represents Mr. O’Rourke’s fund-raising haul for the first quarter of the year, is smaller than the first-quarter numbers of two rivals, Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California. But Mr. O’Rourke only joined the presidential race in mid-March.

Mr. O’Rourke, who proved to be an extraordinary online fund-raiser during his unsuccessful run for Senate last year, received 218,000 contributions, with an average donation of $43, his campaign said.

It also said that the majority of donors to his presidential bid had not donated to his Senate campaign. Mr. O’Rourke raised roughly $80 million for his race against Senator Ted Cruz, creating high expectations for how much money he would be able to bring in as a presidential candidate.

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After entering the 2020 race, Mr. O’Rourke offered early evidence of his fund-raising power: His campaign said he had received $6.1 million in the first 24 hours of his bid, more than any other Democratic presidential candidate had announced raising in his or her first day. Mr. Sanders had previously been atop the pack, at $5.9 million in 24 hours.

That huge first day made up the majority of Mr. O’Rourke’s fund-raising in the first quarter. Mr. Sanders went on to raise a total of $10 million within a week of announcing his campaign, his team said, a threshold that Mr. O’Rourke did not meet in 18 days.

Mr. O’Rourke’s campaign said that 98 percent of the contributions it received were below $200.

“Not only is this a sign of our grass-roots strength during the first two weeks of our campaign,” Mr. O’Rourke said of his fund-raising in a statement, “but it is a sign of what’s possible when you put your full trust in the people of this country.”

Presidential candidates must disclose their first-quarter fund-raising by April 15, but some campaigns decide to make their numbers public before that deadline.

Mr. Sanders’s campaign said on Tuesday that he had raised $18.2 million over six weeks, and Ms. Harris’s campaign said on Monday that she had raised $12 million since joining the race in January. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said on Monday that he had raised more than $7 million since January.

Follow Thomas Kaplan on Twitter: @thomaskaplan.

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