When candidates file to run for a federal office, they are required to submit regular campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission. On Sept. 30, the third quarter came to a close, and Oct. 15 was the deadline to file with the FEC.
Gov. Rick Perry joined the presidential race on Aug. 13, shaking up the GOP pool of candidates. According to a Tribune analysis of third quarter reports, Perry had no problem scaling his formidable fundraising abilities to the national level. Although Perry had less time to rally supporters in the third quarter (candidates are not allowed to raise money until they file with the FEC, meaning Perry could not start until mid-August), Perry outraised all of the other Republican candidates, collecting $17.2 million in the months of August and September.
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The map below visualizes the amount of contributions to each candidate by state. Click on a state to see how much a candidate received, and to see where that state ranks in relation to the others in contributions to that candidate.
More than half of Gov. Rick Perry's contributions came from his home state of Texas. He raised $9.7 million here in the third quarter. California came in second with $1.2 million.
How did Texas like the other candidates? Mitt Romney's fourth-highest amount of contributions came from Texas, $2.1 million. Texas was sixth for Obama, who received $2.6 million.
It is important to note that the map for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul only includes the itemized contributions that he was required to report to the FEC. With his large grassroots support, half of Paul's contributions came in amounts less than $200, below the threshold to be itemized in the campaign finance report.
President Barack Obama, Gov. Rick Perry and former Gov. Mitt Romney all pulled in respectable amounts during the third quarter, but how did they compare to each other day to day? The Tribune built day-by-day graphs of each month, which are viewable below.
Riding high after raising more than $18 million in the second quarter and out-performing the rest of the Republican field, Romney's largest July gain came on July 5, raising just under a half-million dollars from 262 donors in a single day. However, Romney's fundraising efforts for the rest of July were relatively tame, totaling $2.1 million. It was not enough to outraise Obama, who collected $3.3 million.
Perry, then still in the process of deciding whether to mount a presidential campaign, did not file with the FEC until mid-August, and was not allowed to collect contributions during July.
Obama began the month of August well, receiving a generous birthday gift of just less than $600,000 on August 4. On August 13, Perry filed his statement of candidacy and hit the ground running. In his first week of fundraising (Aug. 13 to Aug. 20), Perry picked up $1.5 million. As part of a five-day fundraising blitz that bled into September, Perry received $2.4 million in the last three days of August.
In what was a testament to his fundraising power, Perry nearly matched the combined haul of $6.6 million by Obama and Romney. With only 19 days to fundraise in August, Perry collected $6.1 million.
September began with a bang for Perry, who raised $2.1 million on Sept. 2. Roughly 90 percent of that came from Texas donors, proof that Perry still has access to a massive Texas fundraising network.
Perry's debate performance was less than stellar in the month of September, but did that do anything to influence his ability to collect donations? In the seven days following his first GOP debate on Sept. 7, Perry collected $910,000. Over the same time span, Romney collected $890,000. And despite a stumbling second effort in the Google/Fox News debate on September 22, Perry was still able to pick up $1.5 million to Romney's $1.9 million over the next seven days. Debate performances may continue to haunt Perry (and it could have spurred some Romney support at the end of the month), but so far it does not seem to have chilled his ability to raise money.
Although Perry was edged out by a strong closing by Obama in the final days of September, he was able to collect $10.1 million to Obama's $14.9 million and Romney's $7.4 million.
