page_title: Ted Cruz 2016 presidential campaign
section_title: Fundraising
hierarchical_section_title: Ted Cruz 2016 presidential campaign / Fundraising
caption_attribution_description: English: A Ted Cruz supporter Booth Naples, Florida in 2016.
context_page_description: The 2016 presidential campaign of Ted Cruz, the junior United States Senator from Texas, was announced on March 23, 2015. He was a candidate for the Republican Party's 2016 presidential nomination and won the second-most state contests and delegates. Cruz themed his campaign around being an outsider and a strict conservative. In the crowded early field, he chose not to directly confront the leading candidate, Donald Trump, who was also viewed as an outsider candidate. His cordial and sympathetic tone towards Trump contrasted with the more critical approach of rivals such as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul. Had Cruz been elected, he would have been the first Cuban American U.S. president and the first U.S. president born outside of the United States or the Thirteen Colonies.
  As the field narrowed, Cruz's position in the race strengthened, owing to his debate performances and strong field infrastructure. He won the Iowa Caucuses in February, the first contest of the race. But as the field narrowed and less-viable candidates dropped out, Republican support concentrated around Trump rather than Cruz. Trump beat Cruz handily on Super Tuesday and in most subsequent primaries.
context_section_description: Cruz raised nearly US$4 million in the first eight days after he announced his presidential campaign. 95% of the donations to Cruz's campaign came in contributions of less than US$100.
  On April 8, 2015, it was reported that super PACs backing Cruz had raised US$31 million in a week, one of the biggest fundraising surges in modern presidential-race history to date.  The Cruz campaign is funded by six separate super PACs, an unusually large number, described as "unprecedented" by CNN campaign finance experts.  According to Dathan Voelter, treasurer of several of the PACs, this allows megadonors to exercise "influence and control" over how their money is spent on the campaign.  Of the PACs, Keep the Promise I is funded primarily by an US$11 million donation from Robert Mercer, Keep the Promise II is funded entirely from a US$10 million donation from Toby Neugebauer, and Keep the Promise III is funded by US$15 million donated by Dan and Farris Wilks, two billionaire brothers from Cruz's home state of Texas, and their wives.  As of July 25, a total of US$38 million was pledged to Keep The Promise super PACs.
  Within the first 48 hours after the second Republican primary debate, Cruz's campaign raised US$1 million, the result of more than 15,000 donations, the average being US$49.54. Cruz said he was "thrilled by the outpouring of financial support we've seen in such a short amount of time".
  On October 8, the Cruz campaign announced US$12 million during the previous fundraising quarter, noted by The New York Times as being "substantially less" than that of Ben Carson's campaign who raised US$20 million in the same time but double than that of Marco Rubio, who had raised US$6 million within that period. in a campaign statement, it was reported more than 6,000 of his contributors had pledged intentions to make recurring donations every month. By this point, according to the Campaign Finance Institute, Cruz was in second place in the Republican primary for large donors, after Jeb Bush. On October 26, billionaire Darwin Deason announced alongside "five other wealthy Texans" that they would be aboard his campaign. The donors beforehand supported Rick Perry prior to his presidential campaign ending the previous month.
  Less than 24 hours after the CNBC Republican presidential debate, the Cruz campaign raised US$1.1 million in what was the third straight post debate US$1 million fundraising haul. Over the last three months of 2015, Cruz raised US$20 million, increasing his campaign's finances by 66% from its earnings of the previous quarter. Campaign manager Jeff Roe in a memo reported that the Cruz campaign had received 300,000 donors' contributions and told supporters that the campaign had "a network in place with the resources required to win that is the envy of every other campaign." On January 7, Cruz's campaign was joined by Republican megadonor Dick Uihlein, who donated US$1 million to his super PAC. Drew Ryun, who works for the Cruz super PAC, said Uihlein was in the top five of the courted Republican donors and called landing him a "good shot in the arm for Ted" as well as boosting the campaign in Iowa. On January 20, in an interview with Mark Levin, Cruz announced that his campaign had superseded US$50 million. More than 40% of Cruz's donations that month came from small donors that he was capable of repeatedly requesting contributions from.
caption: Ted Cruz supporters in Naples, Florida, January 2016
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