WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton smashed previous presidential fundraising records in her latest attempt to shatter the highest glass ceiling, her campaign reported Wednesday.
Clinton raised more than $45 million in her first quarter as a presidential candidate, the most ever for a presidential candidate in an initial quarter, her campaign said.
The record was previously held by President Obama in 2011 at $41.9 million.
Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, had been soliciting small-dollar online donations up until the Tuesday midnight close of the quarter.
Meantime, the former secretary of state was courting high-dollar donors at fundraising events around the country at a pace of an event every 36 hours, the Sunlight Foundation previously reported.
The flurry of presidential candidates must all report their fundraising totals and donors by July 15 to the Federal Election Commission, which serves as the first major test of a candidate’s viability.
The early release from the Clinton campaign demonstrates that the cash raised met expectations.
The good news also seeks to divert attention from the latest round of Clinton emails released from the State Department late Tuesday that are under close scrutiny.
Demonstrating grassroots support like her rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s campaign says 91 percent of her haul comes from donations of $100 or less.
Sanders, a socialist from Vermont, has generated a lot of enthusiasm for his liberal message of expanding the government safety net and taking on income inequality, campaign finance and Wall Street banks.
His campaign “is supported almost entirely by small contributions that average about $37 apiece from some 200,000 individual donors,” Sanders’ campaign boasted Tuesday.