First on CNN: Pro-Clinton super PAC announces fundraising haul

Priorities USA, a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC, raised more than $11 million in March, according to the group’s spokesman.

The monthly haul brings the the super PAC’s total amount raised to more than $67 million, spokesman Justin Barasky told CNN.

Wealthy donors have also committed to donate $49 million in the coming months, he added, meaning the group has a total of $116.2 million raised and commitments for the cycle.

Clinton’s Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, has criticized the former secretary of state for her embrace of super PACs, which he claims gives special interests undo influence in politics.

The group’s tally comes a day after Clinton won the New York primary, a victory that has Democrats eager to turn their focus to the general election. Priorities USA, a group that has pledged to largely hold fire until Clinton in the nominee, plans to play a larger role at that point.

To date, the group has reserved $125 million in television and digital ads starting the day after California’s June 8 primary, at which point the Clinton campaign expects to have secured the Democratic nomination. The early ad reservations, which lock in cheaper rates than buying later in the cycle, will focus on the key general election swing states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.

“Thanks to our fundraising success in the coming weeks and months, we will take additional steps to aggressively contrast the dangerous extremism of Republicans like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s record of raising wages, breaking barriers and protecting our country,” said Barasky.

Priorities USA is expected to boost Clinton’s general election operation. But the group has been a liability in the primary, where Sanders has used the super PAC to blast Clinton as all talk on campaign finance.

“Are you qualified to be president of the United States when you’re raising millions of dollars from Wall Street, whose greed and recklessness helped destroy our economy?” Sanders asked during a speech this month where he said Clinton was not qualified to be president.

At last week’s CNN/NY1 Democratic debate, Sanders said: “While we are on Wall Street, one of us has a super PAC. One of us has raised $15 million from Wall Street for that super PAC.”

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