Clinton reaps $53 million in campaign cash in 19 days


              Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets early voters at the Leonard J. Kaplan Center for Wellness at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Greensboro, N.C., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets early voters at the Leonard J. Kaplan Center for Wellness at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Greensboro, N.C., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Clinton collected nearly $53 million for her presidential campaign in the first 19 days of the month - an average of about $2.8 million per day.

The late fundraising helps ensure the Democratic nominee can keep her sprawling campaign at full strength in the frantic final days of the race. Federal Election Commission reports filed Thursday show her campaign had $62.4 million in available cash as of last week.

Clinton's campaign employs more than 800 people, many of whom are fanned out across the country encouraging people to vote for her. She also has been spending more than $16 million per week on advertising, Kantar Media's political ad tracker shows.

An outside group backing Clinton also kept a formidable fundraising pace this month.

Priorities USA raised $18 million in 19 days. As a super PAC, Priorities can take unlimited contributions from wealthy donors, but it may not coordinate with the campaign on how to spend money. Some of its biggest most recent donors include Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Susan Mandel, the wife of a hedge fund founder, who each put in $2.5 million this month.

Priorities has been spending most of its money on TV ads. It plans to spend $20 million on ads this week and next, Kantar Media shows.

Neither Clinton's opponent, Republican Donald Trump, nor the biggest outside groups supporting him had filed October fundraising reports by Thursday evening.

___

Keep track on how much Clinton and Trump are spending on television advertising, and where they're spending it, via AP's interactive ad tracker. http://elections.ap.org/content/ad-spending

___

Follow Julie Bykowicz and Chad Day on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bykowicz and https://twitter.com/ChadSDay

Upcoming Events