Supports of Cruz presidential bid donated $51 million: Cruz campaign

Republican Ted Cruz says he’s raised $14.2 million since announcing his presidential campaign in late March, positioning himself as a formidable fundraiser in what’s becoming a crowded field for the GOP nomination.

A total of 175,000 donors contributed to the campaign, giving an average of $81, the campaign said.

The money comes from more than 120,000 donors who made an average contribution of $81.

Cruz is one of the few candidates who have announced the impressive amount of contributions ahead of the July 15th FEC deadline. On the Democratic side, front runner Hillary Rodham Clinton will report having raised $45 million.

Cruz, the first Republican to announced his candidacy, raised just over $4 million in the week after his March 23 announcement at Liberty University in Virginia. And on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, the 44-year-old freshman senator from Texas said his underdog crusade was possible only ’cause he was rejected for a job in the George W. …

Cruz also recalled how, in his 20s, he had learned to be less “cocky”-otherwise, he said, thousands of grassroots activists wouldn’t have propelled him to victory during his 2012 Senate campaign””.

Cruz’s campaign credited the fundraising performance to grassroots support and social-media attention.

Earlier this year, Cruz supporters launched a trio of super PACs to bolster the senator’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Bush’s Right to Rise PAC is believed to have raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million in the first half of the year.

Cruz and his campaign team are prohibited by campaign finance laws from coordinating their campaign strategy with the outside groups but Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler has in the past announced combined fundraising figures for both Cruz’s campaign and the outside groups.

Ben Carson, the only other presidential candidate to unveil his numbers, has said his campaign raised $8.3 million in the second quarter.