Sen. Marco Rubio raised $1.25 million online during his first full day as a presidential candidate, a person close to the Florida Republican’s campaign said Wednesday.
The first-term senator entered the race for the GOP nomination on Monday evening during a rally in Miami. A day later, his campaign made an aggressive digital push for donations. It quickly paid off.
The haul is as much as Rubio’s team had hoped to raise online during April, May and June, according to a person close to the campaign. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss campaign’s inner workings.
The figures are not set to be publicly reported to the Federal Election Commission until July, so there was no way to independently confirm just how much money was collected.
Rubio’s haul is on par with other presidential hopefuls. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky each raised $1 million online in their first 24 hours.
Rubio’s early fundraising is cash that he can directly control and use to hire staff, air television ads and poll voters in early nominating states. He can only accept $2,700 per donor to help him win the nomination, but most online donors chip in $5 or $10 at a time.
Separately, Rubio allies have started a political organization, Conservative Solutions PAC, ready to raise and spend unlimited cash on his behalf.
(AP)