The super PAC backing Chris Christie’s new bid for the White House raised $11 million to bolster his campaign, the group announced Tuesday.
America Leads, the independent group set up by the New Jersey governor’s allies earlier this year, raised the money from February through June. It is planning to begin a $1.1 million television and online advertising campaign next week. Christie is banking heavily on New Hampshire to resurrect what was once seen as a top-tier candidacy, and his super PAC said it had booked another $2.8 million in television time in the Granite State from mid-November through the state’s primary on Feb. 9.
“We set a goal of raising $15-$20 million by the end of the calendar year, with roughly one-third of that to be achieved by June 30th, and we are now well on our way to hitting and exceeding that benchmark,” said super PAC head Phil Cox, who was executive director of the Republican Governors’ Association when Christie was the RGA’s chairman.
The group also highlighted its low “burn rate” — the clip at which a group or campaign parts with its money — in order to highlight its lean operation. It had $10.7 million of that $11 million on hand at the end of June.
Nearly every presidential candidate has a super PAC, which can collect checks of unlimited sizes, behind them. The Christie group’s haul is weaker than many of his Republican competitors: Jeb Bush’s group lapped the field with $103 million, but even the outside spending groups tied to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio’s campaigns raised three times as much as Christie’s.
All super PACs will have to disclose the names of their donors by the end of the month.