Ted Cruz raised $4.3 million in the first nine days of his presidential campaign, according to a federal campaign finance record filed on Wednesday.
Cruz raked in contributions from some of Texas’ biggest Republican donors, but also won over the small-dollar donors nationwide who backed him in his 2012 rise-from-nowhere.
Cruz, who defied conventional wisdom by launching his campaign about a week left in the reporting period, ended March with a little more than $3.9 million on hand, according to a Federal Election Commission report. As the only major candidate with an official campaign as of last month, Cruz was the sole candidate who had to file a campaign FEC report.
Some of Cruz’s more notable financial supporters include Bob McNair, the owner of the Houston Texans and a heavyweight GOP donor, and San Antonio businessman Red McCombs. Cruz also transferred over about $250,000 from his Senate campaign committee to his new presidential account.
Many of the Texas Republican’s fiercest backers are expected to contribute to the super PACs who can raise donations on a far bigger scale. Some of those PACs said they had already raised $31 million as of this month — the Cruz campaign only hopes to raise $40 to $50 million over the course of the entire campaign.