GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley says her campaign has banked $15.6 million since she launched her bid for the White House in February.
The former South Carolina governor on Monday announced that her campaign raised $7.3 million in the second quarter of the year, which wrapped up June 30. Campaigns are expected to be announcing their totals in the coming days following the Federal Election Commission’s filing deadline.
Stand For America Fund Inc., the pro-Haley super PAC, also announced on Monday that it has raised $18.7 million in its effort to promote the top-tier candidate for president.
The Haley campaign says it has $9.3 million cash on hand, and the super PAC has $17 million in ready funds — a total of $26.3 million in the war chests.
Fox News first reported the numbers on Monday. Haley’s camp says it has taken in nearly 160,000 donations from all 50 states. The top three donor states were South Carolina, Florida, and Texas.
“Nikki is grateful for the groundswell of support from nearly 160,000 donations from all 50 states. Voters want their next president to take on China, speak out against socialism at home and abroad, and provide a vision for a strong and proud America,” Haley campaign communications director Nachama Soloveichik said.
Haley’s campaign was found to have overstated its initial campaign fundraising haul in April. The campaign at the time reported it had raked in more than $11 million “in just six weeks.”
FEC filings, however, showed the campaign apparently double-counted campaign cash collected among Haley’s fundraising committees. Election records show the three committees raised a combined $8.3 million. Haley’s campaign spokesman Ken Farnaso stood by the $11 million report, asserting the campaign’s accounting reflected how other candidates have in the past qualified their contributions.
This time, Haley’s fundraising announcement broke down the funds in the main campaign committee and the super PAC.
Other GOP presidential candidates have announced their fundraising totals in recent days.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign says it has raised more than $20 million since launching in late May, with the DeSantis-backing super PAC Never Back Down taking in more than $130 million to date.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has announced joint fundraising efforts, including donations to his campaign and his Save America leadership PAC of north of $35 million raised between April and June.
Meanwhile, Ohio entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s GOP presidential campaign on Monday announced an incentives-based initiative for his grassroots fundraising efforts. The political outsider says he’ll pay out 10 percent of what supporters raise for his campaign.
Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire venture capitalist who has largely self-funded his campaign to date, calls his initiative “Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet.”
“As a political outsider and first-time candidate, I was stunned to discover the degree to which the political class cashes in on the electoral process. I found out that most professional political fundraisers get a cut of the money they raise—why should they monopolize political fundraising? They shouldn’t,” Ramaswamy said in a statement. “That’s why I started ‘Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet,’ so everyone can get in on this. Go-getters can make 10 percent of the money they raise for our campaign. This isn’t just a grassroots campaign; this is a revolution.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Nikki Haley Picnic Campaigning” by Nikki Haley.
