WASHINGTON — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is outraising Hillary Clinton in their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, but she started this month with more money reserved in her bank accounts than Sanders did for April’s expensive primary fights.
Among Republicans, Sen. Ted Cruz’s fundraising hit a new high in March, but the Texan is racing through big sums in his quest to challenge Donald Trump’s status as the GOP front-runner.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich saw a surge in fundraising last month, following his victory in the Ohio primary — his only win in the Republican nomination battle so far. But Kasich started April with a little less than $1.2 million in leftover funds, trailing far behind the $8.8 million Cruz still had available at the start of the month.
Money, meanwhile, is no problem for Trump, who boasts about self-funding his campaign. He loaned his campaign another $11.5 million last month, bringing his total investment in his presidential bid to slightly more than $36 million. But newly filed campaign finance reports also show that nearly a quarter of all the money the billionaire has raised to date comes from other people.
A closer look at some of the key numbers from the latest round of campaign-finance reports shows that:
- The candidates for Democratic nomination are waging an expensive primary fight, but Clinton is in better financial shape for the long haul and she and her allies eye the general-election fight. (A cash-flush, pro-Clinton super PAC announced this week that it has begun reserving $125 million in television and digital advertising for the general election.)
- Sanders took in nearly $46 million in March, more money than any of the five Republican and Democratic candidates still running for the White House and spent that much in a single month. Clinton raised far less — about $29 million for her campaign and through a joint account with the national and state parties. But she started April with nearly $29 million in cash reserves to Sanders’ $17.5 million.
- The reports show Trump is starting to step up his spending, pumping nearly $13.8 million into his White House effort last month. That’s his biggest spending month of the campaign and more than either Kasich or Cruz shelled out in March.
- Trump took in another $2.7 million in donations from other people last month. Outside contributions to his campaign now total $12.2 million for the election cycle.
- Cruz collected $12.5 million in March, his strongest performance of the year but he quickly burned through most of it, spending nearly $11.8 million. More than half of that went to advertising.
- Kasish’s campaign raised nearly $4.5 million last month, an increase from his February haul. But he spent even more than he raised in March.
