It is extremely expensive to run for the office of President of the United States (POTUS). It requires hundreds of millions of dollars and if candidates are “lucky” enough to make it to the final showdown, they will have to raise more than a small countries GDP.
Fundraising has become just as important as a strong political acumen, experience, and looks – sorry Chris Christie, America doesn’t like big people. Candidates needs a considerable amount of cash just to be competitive in the primaries. Wanna make it past a caucus? Have a couple millions to fund your trips, rallies, signs, mailers, radio spots, campaign staff, etc. It’s the cost to be in the race. That isn’t to say you can just be anyone and be in the race…. or can you?
Surely, you can’t be a brash, egotistical, multiple time bankrupt businessman, who is sexist, racist and loves brass, right?!
Consider the amount of money that Hillary Clinton and Bernard Sanders have received thus far for their POTUS bid – about $190mm in total. Hillary has received well over $115mm and Bernie at just over $75mm. These are strong presidential candidates, with years of experience on Capitol Hill. However, even Hillary, who’s name recognition is undoubtedly the highest in the POTUS race, has raised the most money – $40mm more than the next closest candidate, who just so happens to be Sanders. It takes more than just famous name or an angry fist, it takes dough.
- ’08 Obama – $778mm
- ’08 McCain – $399mm
- ’12 Obama – $737mm
- ’12 Romney – $483mm
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| The Republican Party’s funding pie is being split between 3x’s as many candidates than the Democratic Party |
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| NY, CA, FL, and TX are cash cow states and are must haves. On the other hand, swing states, which may not have the cash are incredibly important to winning it all. |
| Candidate Name | Sum of Total Receipts | % of Total Rec. | Total of Operating Expenses | % of Total Exp. | Net Remaining | Utlization of Receipts |
| KASICH, JOHN R | $7,582,364.84 | 1.99% | $5,017,825.24 | 1.93% | $2,564,539.60 | 66% |
| TRUMP, DONALD J | $19,405,216.96 | 5.10% | $12,180,793.50 | 4.68% | $7,224,423.46 | 63% |
| RUBIO, MARCO | $29,710,091.51 | 7.81% | $21,574,640.71 | 8.28% | $8,135,450.80 | 73% |
| BUSH, JEB | $31,922,099.87 | 8.39% | $24,276,991.84 | 9.32% | $7,645,108.03 | 76% |
| CRUZ, RAFAEL EDWARD “TED” | $47,086,857.05 | 12.38% | $28,122,201.79 | 10.79% | $18,964,655.26 | 60% |
| CARSON, BENJAMIN S SR MD | $54,036,610.31 | 14.21% | $47,196,679.94 | 18.12% | $6,839,930.37 | 87% |
| SANDERS, BERNARD | $75,023,151.54 | 19.73% | $45,994,776.47 | 17.66% | $29,028,375.07 | 61% |
| CLINTON, HILLARY RODHAM | $115,563,928.67 | 30.39% | $76,153,409.89 | 29.23% | $39,410,518.78 | 66% |
| Grand Total | $380,330,320.75 | 100.00% | $260,517,319.38 | 100.00% | $119,813,001.37 | 68% |
- It is incredible the amount of support Ben Carson has received in terms of nominal value, but has yet to translate that into a serious move in the polls. He is also burning through his money.
- The Donald, a former reality show host, is benefiting greatly from his name cache and a disenfranchised base looking for a non-politician to tell it how it is.
- Cruz has risen to the cause of taking on Trump and is poised well from a financial standpoint to do so. He has been the most efficient with his money.
- The criticism of Bush is fair. He has raised a ton of money and has hardly anything to show for it. After Carson he has the highest burn rate.
- Sanders might have a lot of runway with his funds and seems to be threatening Hillary, but he needs to start to winning delegate to make this a real fight.
