Politics

Perry’s $17M fundraising report exceeds expectations

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Despite some political pundits’ inclination to begin drafting political obituaries for Rick Perry, his campaign’s financial numbers released Wednesday show that he still has fundraising appeal. According to the campaign, Perry raised $17 million between August 13 and September 20.

That fundraising period represented just over half of the fiscal quarter, since Perry entered the race on August 13. The money came from more than 22,000 different contributors from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

“The generous contributions from Americans across the nation prove the overwhelming support for Gov. Perry’s principled, conservative leadership and vision to get America working again,” said Perry Campaign Manager Rob Johnson. “The governor will continue travelling the country talking directly to Americans about restoring our economic strength, job creation and putting our country on a path to prosperity and opportunity for future generations.”

The numbers exceed even the campaign’s own expectations. In September, spokesman Ray Sullivan told The Daily Caller that the campaign was keeping expectations low because of Perry’s late entry into the race.

“Obviously we hope to do well and be competitive,” Sullivan said, “but we are working with literally half the time frame the rest of the candidates are working with.” Sullivan was reacting at the time to an erroneous report from The Dallas Morning News which said the campaign had raised $20 million in just three days during his initial fundraising period. “The figure reported by the Dallas Morning News is just nuts.”

Front-runner Mitt Romney reportedly raised between $11 million and $13 million during the third quarter of 2011. He raised $18 million in the second quarter.

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