President Obama raised more than $86 million for his re-election campaign and the
Democratic National Committee in the last three months, besting previous campaign fund-raising records for the quarter and far outpacing the Republicans who are hoping to replace him in the White House.
Mr. Obama’s campaign, Obama for America, raised $47 million, while the president’s frequent fund-raisers boosted the D.N.C.’s coffers by $38 million. Democrats had set a goal of raising a combined $60 million for both groups by the end of June.
The fund-raising total gives Mr. Obama and the
Democratic Party an early and large lead over his potential rivals. The president’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, said he will use the cash to ramp up Mr. Obama’s campaign operation across the country even as the Republican primary is under way.
The Republican front-runner,
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts,
raised $18.25 million in the quarter that ended on June 30.
Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota,
raised $4.2 million. Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the former governor of Utah, raised $4.1 million, including about $2 million from himself.
Mr. Messina announced the president’s fund-raising totals in a predawn video to campaign supporters, two days before the campaign is required to file what is expected to be a 15,000-page campaign finance report with the
Federal Election Commission.
And it comes even as the president is locked in a high-wire negotiation with Republicans in Washington over how to raise the nation’s
debt ceiling, reduce the government’s annual deficit and revamp costly entitlement programs.
In the fund-raising message, Mr. Messina thanked supporters for the early support.
“We have reason to be proud of what we’ve built so far but it’s going to be tougher from here,” he said.
The president’s top political aides have said they expect to match — or even possibly exceed — the $750 million that Mr. Obama raised during the 2008 campaign. Mr. Messina noted that the support for Mr. Obama during the last three months far exceeded the support he got as a candidate. The numbers also reflect the inherent advantages of incumbency; President
George W. Bush raised just more than $35 million during the same period in 2003, as he prepared for his re-election campaign.
Mr. Messina said that
552,462 people had contributed to the president and the D.N.C. this year, nearly triple the number of contributors to Mr. Obama’s first presidential campaign by this time in 2007.
Mr. Messina claimed, somewhat immodestly, that the number of donors represents “more grassroots support at this point in the process than any campaign in political history.”
Mr. Messina also bragged that 98 percent of the contributions to Mr. Obama’s campaign this year have been $250 or less, and that the average contribution was $69.
The president’s campaign is bracing for a bruising re-election battle that will be waged in part by outside groups, like Crossroads GPS, a conservative group that counts
Karl Rove among its advisers; and Priorities USA Action, formed by Bill Burton, President Obama’s former deputy press secretary. Those groups are expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, in part because they are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money directly from corporations.
The money raised by the president will allow early advertising efforts to push back against criticism of the president coming from the Republican presidential candidates and from outside groups about Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy.
Mr. Messina said that it would also allow the campaign to begin building its infrastructure. He said the campaign already has 60 field offices across the country and will be opening more in the months to come.
“This is a whole new ballgame like we’ve never done before,” he said.
