The presidential contest has seen funding of more than $1 billion. Much of this sum has been donated by ultra-rich Americans who have been providing the bankroll for super PACs acting as shadow campaigners for presidential hopefuls.
This figure is the total amount raised by the super PACs for presidential candidates until the end of February, as shown by a recently released campaign report. At this point in the last election, which was held in 2012, the total raised by the presidential hopefuls was only $402.7 million, as shown by data compiled by the Campaign Finance Institute, which is a non-partisan organization.
The portion of money donated by super PACs has nearly doubled since the last election, going from 22% of the total amount in 2012, up to 40% in the current election cycle.
It has to be noted that these figures are slightly skewed due to the fact that it was a sitting president who was running in the last election. 2008 was the last time a sitting president or vice president wasn’t running for the White House. At this point in 2008, the candidates had raised $812 million.
