Jeb Bush raised $11.4 million in 16 days after formally launching his campaign for president, his campaign said Thursday. The total is a fraction of what he has pulled in overall to support his White House ambitions.
The former Republican governor of Florida is taking a unique approach to a presidential bid, delegating many operations to an affiliated group that is free of limits on how much money a traditional campaign can raise from individual donors.
The affiliated group, a super political action committee called Right to Rise, has been active since January. Run by a Bush strategist, it is expected to report having raised as much as $100 million in the past six months when it releases figures later Thursday.
That amount is sure to eclipse the fundraising of each of the other 16 major competitors for the Republican nomination.
The $11.4 million raised by Bush's formal campaign came in contributions that were limited to checks of no more than $2,700 for the primary and general election.
That amounts to an average of roughly $710,000 a day, which the campaign touted as more than the $562,000 per day average raised by Democratic front runner Hillary Rodham Clinton since she launched her campaign April 12. Clinton's haul in that time totalled $45 million.
Bush must provide additional fundraising details, including the names of donors and how much they gave, to federal regulators by Wednesday night.
So far, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says he has raised $14.2 million, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has raised $10.5 million and former technology executive Carly Fiorina has raised $1.4 million.
The son and brother of two presidents, Bush came to the race with a deep roster of experienced fundraisers and likely donors.
By law, the affiliated super PAC can't take direction from the Bush campaign, and the two operations have limits on how they can communicate.
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Associated Press writer Steve Peoples contributed to this report.
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