It’s filing day.
Nearly every presidential campaign will file detailed reports with the Federal Elections Commission on Wednesday, highlighting how much money they raised for their bids and what they’re spending it on. These reports offer the crispest snapshot yet of what each campaign sees as their strategic priorities heading into the summer.
Most campaigns have released their top-line figures early — and the super PACs backing each campaign can wait to file their reports until July 31 — but Wednesday will detail the state of the Republican and Democratic races.
As of Wednesday evening, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham and Martin O’Malley have not yet filed their reports.
But here’s what we know as of now:
Hillary Clinton burns through 40% of $47 million
She raised big and spent big.
Hillary Clinton raked in $47 million in her first quarter as a candidate and spent $19 million — more than some other candidates raised total and making for quite a high “burn rate.” That figure — the share of the money raised that is spent — is looked to by campaign observers to get a sense as to how lean an operation the leadership is running
About 94% of their donations were $250 or less, with an average donation of $144.89, according to the Clinton campaign. But small donors only accounted for 17% of the total amount raised, the FEC filing shows.
About 61% percent of the donors, the campaign said, are women.
Donald Trump loans his campaign $1.8 million
Donald Trump may boast endlessly about his total assets and net worth, but he only loaned his campaign $1.8 million in the first days of his campaign, according to his filing.
The businessman has pledged to self-finance his campaign, and he correspondingly doesn’t seem to have spent much time fundraising. He only raised $92,000 from other contributors.
Trump spent $1.4 million and had less than $500,000 on hand at the end of the quarter. He spent $95 at Macy’s, two days before the company severed ties with the businessman after his controversial comments about immigrants.
Only 3% of Jeb Bush’s money came from small donors
Jeb Bush’s campaign is a famed fundraising juggernaut, but his shop had some help from the candidate himself: Bush donated nearly $390,000 to his campaign, according to his FEC report.
Bush’s $11.4 million haul is due in part to his family’s longstanding connections with top Republican bundlers, or volunteer fundraisers, who collect $2,700 checks from their friends and associates. Bush is not known for his connections to small-dollar donors, and the report bares that out: only about 3% of his money came from donors who gave less than $200. Bush had a burn rate of about 27%.
Bush has also publicly praised Uber — and he practices what he preaches: His campaign listed about 70 expenditures for the ride-sharing service.
And he discloses the top fundraisers that brought the cash
Candidates are only required to disclose the fundraisers that are registered lobbyists, and Bush, a favorite of several Washington lobby shops, has named his first set.
Eight lobbyists are currently helping Bush raise cash, led in part by National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors president Dirk Van Dongen, who brought the Republican candidate $34,000. Other top check collectors include DLA Piper lobbyist Ignacio Sanchez and bank lobbyist Bill Killmer.
Bernie Sanders has a legion of grassroots donors
The number of donors who give fewer than $200 generally speaks to their ability to raise money deep into the campaign season. If a donor only gives $100 in June rather than $2,700, the legal maximum, the presidential candidate can return to those donors in July and ask for more.
Bernie Sanders is positioned extraordinarily well to do just that: 76% of his donations are under $200. His campaign said earlier this month that 250,000 individual donors gave to the campaign, most of whom we guess will be asked again and again to give to the Vermont socialist.
Ben Carson does, too
Carson is the closest thing Republicans have to a Bernie Sanders — two-thirds of his money came in the form of low-dollar donations. A hero with the grassroots, Carson has long been expected to compete with Rand Paul and Ted Cruz for the support of online donors who give recurring donations maybe once or twice a month.
Carson has spent much of that cash, though. Of the $8.5 million he raised, $5.4 million of it is out the door.
Rick Perry parts with more than half of his money
The former Texas governor raised the fourth-lowest amount of any of the Republicans who have publicly shared their hauls thus far: just more than $1 million. And partially because Perry raised so little — and the costs associated with a campaign are somewhat front-loaded — Perry’s report revealed a high burn rate.
More than half of the money spent by the Perry campaign went to “Abstract Communications LLC”, a Texas company incorporated three days before Perry announced his campaign. The company is managed by his top strategist, Rob Johnson, and his campaign manager, Jeff Miller, according to corporation records filed with the Texas Secretary of State.
The Perry campaign did not respond to a request for comment about whether other Perry aides technically worked for the firm.
Ted Cruz owes $560,000 to his “psychographic” analytics firm
Ted Cruz has been a much more successful fundraiser than folks anticipated, and his report reflects that — despite the high “burn rate.” He has spent $5.4 million of the $14 million he raised. About 40% of his dollars come from small donors.
The Texas senator has also celebrated an analytics firm that has embedded several data gurus at its Houston headquarters. The program run by that firm, Cambridge Analytica, profiles voters into six personality types and then tailors campaign messaging to them based on how they are predicted to react.
Apparently the Cruz campaign is behind on some payments: they owe Cambridge Analytica $556,000 for “survey research/donor modeling.”
You can’t spend money if you don’t have any, George Pataki learns
On the one hand, longshot George Pataki spent virtually no money on his campaign — only $48,000. On the other hand, that’s 20% of all the cash he raised: $255,000, well less than many congressional candidates.
The former New York governor took in the least amount of money of any presidential candidate.
Mike Huckabee collects from Chuck Norris
The television sensation who cut an advertisement for Huckabee in 2008 gave the Arkansas governor the day before his presidential announcement: $2,700.
Rick Santorum has very little money
Santorum won the Iowa caucuses in 2012 with few dollars behind him, and his second quarter report makes it look like he’ll have not much support once again. Santorum raised only $600,000 during the spring.
One donor of note: Foster Friess, the billionaire who helped keep Santorum afloat in 2012 by financing a pro-Santorum super PAC.
Martin O’Malley raises $2 million
The former Maryland governor’s campaign said it raised $2 million in its first fundraising quarter, much less than his top Democratic opponents: Hillary Clinton, who raised $45 million, and Bernie Sanders, who brought in $15 million. O’Malley, however, had much less time than they did to raise that money — he only launched his campaign in late May.
“We’re thankful for the support we’ve received from donors across all 50 states who are ready for the new leadership, progressive values, and a track record of getting things done that Gov. O’Malley brings to the race,” said O’Malley strategist Bill Hyers in a statement
O’Malley was one of the last 2016 candidates to announce a number. His FEC report had not yet been filed as of early Wednesday afternoon.
Just $72 million … for Lee Mercer
There are 478 candidates who have told the FEC they are running for president, but only one who claims to have given his own campaign $72 million. A man by the name of Lee Mercer, a Democratic candidate, says he gave his own campaign $24 million once a month over the first quarter. Candidates can claim what they’d like on the reports, and there’s no sign that this haul is actually true.
$72 million is actually a bad haul for Mercer, a perennial candidate. In the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, he said he raised billions — not millions — of dollars for his campaign.
The Houston man’s employment could not be independently verified — he claims to work for the “U.S. Supreme Court, U.N. other.”
