WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush raised $114.4 million in the first six months of the year to fuel his White House ambitions, a historic amount that takes full advantage of the nation’s evolving campaign finance laws.
No candidate for president has benefited from so much money so early in a campaign, and the total is sure to eclipse the fundraising of each of the other 16 major competitors for the Republican nomination.
“People have been willing to take a look, and he’s overcome the people who have said, ‘Not another Bush,'” said Bill Kunkler, a Chicago construction company executive and Bush donor. “People are looking at him as a guy who did it on his own, and who stands on his own.”
The former Republican governor of Florida is taking a unique approach to a presidential bid, delegating many operations to an affiliated group that is free of limits on how much money a traditional campaign can raise from individual donors.
The affiliated group, a super PAC called Right to Rise, has been active since January. Run by a trusted Bush strategist, it said Thursday it had raised $103 million between January and the end of June.