Pro-Clinton super PAC forced to return banned donations as the campaign announces massive June fundraising haul

After the first month of general election fundraising, Clinton's cash lead over Trump begins to look insurmountable

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published July 1, 2016 8:46PM (EDT)

Hillary Clinton   (AP/Jim Cole/Shutterstock/Salon)
Hillary Clinton (AP/Jim Cole/Shutterstock/Salon)

After becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee at the close of the final primary polls earlier this month, Hillary Clinton proceeded to rake in the biggest fundraising haul of her campaign thus far.

The Clinton campaign announced on Friday that it had raised more than $68.5 million for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and state parties in the month of June. Clinton’s campaign now enters July in a dominant financial position, with $44 million on hand after a total haul of about $288 million raised throughout the primary, the campaign announced in a statement.

$40.5 million of June's massive haul went directly to the campaign, while the remaining $28 million went to the DNC and state parties through the Hillary Victory Fund and the Hillary Action Fund, brining Clinton's total joint fundraising to around $90 million.

 

“Our first month of general election fundraising proved to be the best of the campaign,” campaign manager Robby Mook said.

According to her campaign, the average Clinton donation was $48.

But while things are clearly going swimmingly in the fundraising department of the Clinton headquarters, the same can't be said for the largest super PAC supporting her.

Priorities USA announced on Friday that it had returned $200,000 in contributions from a company that had contracts with the federal government, The Hill, which first discovered the banned donation. The Hill found that Suffolk Construction had given $200,000 to Priorities, while, according to USAspending.gov, holding multiple contracts with the Department of Defense worth $976,560.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's campaign has still not reported it's fundraising numbers for June, after raising a paltry $3.1 million the month he clinched the Republican nomination. Entering June, in fact, Trump had an embarrassing $1.3 million cash on hand.

This, as he fired his campaign manager, hired and then watched as new campaign staffers quit within weeks, and generally failed at any attempts to "pivot" towards the general election.


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

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Campaign Fundraising Donald Trump Election 2016 Elections 2016 Hillary Clinton Priorities Usa