Obama raises $53mn in March

16 Apr, 2012

The campaign released a video Monday unveiling the figure and highlighting small donors to the campaign, as it seeks to build a wide network of supporters who can be tapped right up until the presidential election on November 6.

Obama's fundraising number included 190,000 people who donated for the first time in March and a total of 567,000 people sent money to the campaign, with the average donation of just over $50, the video said.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said that the campaign was made up of "people building this organization five or ten bucks at a time to take on Mitt Romney."

"We are all going to have to dig even deeper, work even harder, move even faster -- it's going to take all of us working together."

Obama has now raised over $200 million for his reelection bid and for the Democratic National Committee and up until the end of February, he had spent $75 million -- much of it building a new nationwide political machine.

Romney had raised nearly $75 million by the end of February, but has spent $66 million on his long Republican primary campaign, leaving him at a significant organizational disadvantage as the general election dawns.

The Republican challenger will however likely benefit from tens of millions of dollars of anti-Obama spending by political groups known as Super PACS, now permitted to raise unlimited money from corporations and individuals thanks to a controversial Supreme Court ruling.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2012

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