Jeb Bush Has Raised Nearly $115M This Year In White House Bid
WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) — Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush has raised nearly $115 million this year for a campaign seeking to make him the third member of his family to reach the White House, supporters said Thursday.
Between January and June, Bush raised $103 million for his campaign’s war chest — and another $11.4 million since July 1, the Washington Post reported Thursday. Most of the money, the report said, was raised by Bush’s political action committee, Right to Rise USA.
That amount is the most any presidential contender has ever raised in a single quarter in a year before an election year, nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute reported. For perspective, President George W. Bush raised a total of $50 million in the fall of 2003, a year before he was re-elected.
Known as a “Super PAC,” Right to Rise can accept unlimited monies from donors.
Bush, a former Florida governor, has hit the campaign trail hard in recent weeks to bulk up his coffers. In fact, Bush had already compiled tens of millions of dollars from GOP backers before he even officially launched his 2016 bid.
Analysts say the Bush family’s vast network of supporters is likely the primary reason he’s been able to amass such an intimidating financial cache with 16 months still to go before election day.
Right to Rise said the money has come from nearly 10,000 donors, the Post reported.
“We are grateful for the overwhelming response from the thousands of donors who have been drawn to Jeb’s optimistic message of conservative renewal and reform,” said Charlie Spies, the group’s treasurer and general counsel.
Bush, though, will need all the money he can get while going up against big-hitting Republicans like Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz, who are all capable of laying down some heavy fiscal firepower on their trails.
By contrast, top Democrat Hillary Clinton is far behind Bush on the financial scoreboard. So far, she has raised a total of $60 million, about $15 million of which came from her Super PAC, Priorities USA Action.
So far in the second fiscal quarter, Bush has raised an average of $760,000 per day compared to $570,000 for Clinton. Cruz is currently a distant second to Bush, with about $51 million.
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