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NY Times: Trump, Cruz Have Most Money Heading Into Super Tuesday
Sunday, February 21, 2016 05:53 PM
By: Greg Richter
Businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are the Republican presidential candidates with the most money heading into the "SEC primary" on March 1, The New York Times reports.
According to Federal Election Commission filings on Saturday, Cruz began February in the best shape with $13.6 million in cash on hand. Trump is mainly self-financing from his own wealth, but has raised millions from small donors. He has contributed $5 million out of his own pocket in January.
Candidates backed by rich establishment donors spent the most of their money, according to the report and did little to harm Trump and Cruz, both seen as outsider candidates that the establishment would be loathe to see get the nomination.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the only two establishment candidates remaining in the race, had less than $7 million combined, according to the Times. And former Florida Jeb Bush, who dropped out after a disappointing fourth-place finish in South Carolina on Saturday, had only $2.9 million left.
Bush had entered the race in June as the front-runner and had virtually cornered the market on donor money with more than $100 million raised by his super PAC Right to Rise. Right to Rise raised only $379,000 in January.
But much of the money raised by Bush and other establishment candidates was spent taking down each other rather than Trump or Cruz, leaving them mostly unscathed.
"The establishment GOP is lying to itself," radio host and Trump supporter Laura Ingraham told the Times. "This election at its core is a rejection of their globalist economic agenda and failed immigration policies — and of rule by the donor class."
The donor class now has its sights set on targeting Trump's past positions on abortion, universal health care and higher taxes, with most establishment money expected to go to Rubio.
"South Carolina is the political equivalent of the parting of the Red Sea," Theresa Kostrzewa, a Bush fund-raiser in North Carolina, told the Times. "Republicans: This is your sign from God."
