[h=3]By LAURA MECKLER[/h]President Barack Obama's campaign had its best fundraising month yet in August in this election cycle, raising more than $114 million with the Democratic National Committee, and topping rival Mitt Romney for the first time since April.
The Romney campaign, together with the Republican National Committee, pulled in more than $111.6 million last month, the campaign said.
For Mr. Obama, there is some relief in outpacing Mr. Romney, who had beat him in fundraising in each of the three previous months. But Mr. Romney's campaign may still have ended August with more cash on hand. Republicans said they had about $168.5 million; Democrats did not say how much they had. And pro-Romney super political action committees, which can collect unlimited checks, are swamping pro-Obama outside groups.
In a statement, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina cited broad support from more than 1.1 million donors, who gave an average contribution of $58 in August.
"The key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August," he said. "That is a critical down payment on the organization we are building across the country—the largest grass-roots campaign in history."
He said that 317,000 of them had never contributed to the Obama campaign before. The campaign said it has received contributions from more than 3.1 million donors this campaign season.
The Romney campaign said it had received 822,223 donations under $250 in August and that 94% of its donations fell under that threshold.
Romney Victory National Finance Chairman Spencer Zwick and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a joint statement that their success is due to American hunger for a change in leadership.
"We will continue the hard work of raising the resources so that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan can win in November," they said.
Write to Laura Meckler at [email protected]
The Romney campaign, together with the Republican National Committee, pulled in more than $111.6 million last month, the campaign said.
For Mr. Obama, there is some relief in outpacing Mr. Romney, who had beat him in fundraising in each of the three previous months. But Mr. Romney's campaign may still have ended August with more cash on hand. Republicans said they had about $168.5 million; Democrats did not say how much they had. And pro-Romney super political action committees, which can collect unlimited checks, are swamping pro-Obama outside groups.
In a statement, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina cited broad support from more than 1.1 million donors, who gave an average contribution of $58 in August.
"The key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August," he said. "That is a critical down payment on the organization we are building across the country—the largest grass-roots campaign in history."
He said that 317,000 of them had never contributed to the Obama campaign before. The campaign said it has received contributions from more than 3.1 million donors this campaign season.
The Romney campaign said it had received 822,223 donations under $250 in August and that 94% of its donations fell under that threshold.
Romney Victory National Finance Chairman Spencer Zwick and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a joint statement that their success is due to American hunger for a change in leadership.
"We will continue the hard work of raising the resources so that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan can win in November," they said.
Write to Laura Meckler at [email protected]