On Sunday night, just a day before the Iowa caucuses, every candidate for president was required to file fundraising reports with the Federal Elections Commission disclosing their campaign finance activities over the final three months of 2015. And as was the case in the third quarter of last year, Hillary Clinton raised the most money while Bernie Sanders was runner-up. Both also took in far more than the nearest Republican contender.
With help from ProPublica's FEC Itemizer, we've compiled all the numbers into the chart below:
Candidate |
Primary |
RECEIPTS |
Spent |
Cash-on-Hand |
Hillary Clinton |
(D) |
$38,092,325 |
$33,109,850 |
$37,977,648 |
Bernie Sanders |
(D) |
$33,559,368 |
$32,374,324 |
$28,304,766 |
Ben Carson |
(R) |
$22,627,102 |
$27,331,989 |
$6,567,647 |
Ted Cruz |
(R) |
$20,519,559 |
$15,563,668 |
$18,734,794 |
Marco Rubio |
(R) |
$14,194,454 |
$14,771,850 |
$10,398,593 |
Donald Trump |
(R) |
$13,576,295 |
$6,866,743 |
$6,964,325 |
Jeb Bush |
(R) |
$7,107,370 |
$9,788,641 |
$7,589,858 |
John Kasich |
(R) |
$3,193,732 |
$3,333,576 |
$2,537,301 |
Chris Christie |
(R) |
$2,950,344 |
$3,210,634 |
$1,126,158 |
Carly Fiorina |
(R) |
$2,853,044 |
$3,917,931 |
$4,484,307 |
Rand Paul |
(R) |
$2,077,407 |
$2,931,491 |
$1,270,072 |
Martin O'Malley |
(D) |
$1,502,108 |
$2,138,652 |
$169,442 |
Mike Huckabee |
(R) |
$703,946 |
$1,332,112 |
$133,244 |
Rick Santorum |
(R) |
$247,627 |
$431,234 |
$42,920 |
Jim Gilmore |
(R) |
$108,633 |
$109,360 |
$33,658 |
One big change from last quarter to this in the Democratic primary: Sanders’ spending, which previously was less than half Clinton’s, has now caught up. As a result, Clinton’s fundraising lead has allowed her to pad her cash advantage somewhat, from less than $6 million to around $9.7 million. Still, both campaigns are well-funded for the contests ahead.
For much of the GOP field, however, the financial picture is less hale.
Ben Carson’s campaign has been completely exposed as a grifty fraud: It spent millions more than it raised last quarter, mostly on scammy (and expensive) direct mail fundraising. Carson's entire operation is irrelevant at this point, except to the people he’s ripped off.
Among the supposedly “serious” candidates, though, Jeb Bush has really seen his fortunes plummet. In the third quarter, he trailed only Carson’s scuzz machine. This time, he’s fallen to fifth place—and, like Carson, is burning through cash quicker than he’s bringing it in. Carly Fiorina’s in a similar boat: Believe it or not, she raised the fourth-most of any Republican from July through September (not including drop-outs), but like Bush, she’s dropped four spots and is now eighth.
And don’t be fooled by Donald Trump, even though he’s swapped spots with Fiorina. Like his hair, his fundraising haul is totally fake: That $13.6 million figure includes a personal loan from the Donald himself in the amount of $10.8 million. Do you think he delivered it in casino chips? Without that line of credit, Trump would have, like Carson, Bush, and 10 more of the 15 candidates on the chart above, found himself spending more than he raised.
In fact, only one Republican has a genuinely positive cash-flow: Ted Cruz, who until a little while ago, at least, looked like the guy best-positioned to stop Trump. Now his outlook is much hazier, but he still leads the GOP pack in fundraising and has the most cash in the bank. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, takes a clear second place.
Of course, none of this accounts for super PACs, which were also obligated to file FEC reports on Sunday. While their vast spending can and most certainly does affect the race, their fundraising success depends largely on how much a particular candidate appeals to a handful of wealthy donors. They don’t reflect the real work of building a serious campaign with a serious fundraising operation, and as the numbers above show, just a handful of candidates have managed to do that. We’ll see how all of this translates into actual votes tonight.