On Friday afternoon, heading into the holiday weekend, Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign announced that it raised $4.2 million in the second fundraising quarter that ended Thursday at midnight.
“Gov. Pawlenty will report that his campaign has raised about $4.2 million, and begins the third quarter with more available cash-on-hand than the Republicans who won the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary had in July 2007,” said Pawlenty spokesperson Alex Conant.
Some of that money will be earmarked for the general election, the New York Times reported, meaning that Pawlenty will not have access to it during the primary season.
The amount is about what was expected. The Pawlenty campaign had been lowballing the number in the days leading up to the close of the fundraising quarter, but insisting that it would raise as much as was needed.
“We’re not gonna have the Bentley or Mercedes level of funding like some other candidates,” Pawlenty told the Miami Herald. “But we will at least have a Buick level to be able to get done in phase one, which is the early states, and do it at a competitive level.”
By comparison, Mitt Romney’s campaign said that it would report between $15 and $20 million in fundraising. Jon Huntsman, who has been a candidate for just a few weeks, raised $4.1 million, just under half of which, his campaign said, is personal funds. Ron Paul announced Friday that his campaign had raised $4.5 million.