Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania pulled in more than $600,000 for his 2016 presidential campaign over the last three months, according to his second quarter fundraising report.
The haul places Mr. Santorum toward the back of the pack as far as the first major fundraising reports go, and comes as the crowded GOP field of candidates begins to outline their plans for how they are going to spend their money on voter outreach and radio and television advertisements.
Mr. Santorum’s filing with the Federal Election Commission showed he raised $607,000 and had $232,018 cash on hand at the end of the quarter, which ran from April 1 to June 30.
Mr. Santorum surprised many in the 2012 GOP nomination race by winning the Iowa caucuses and finishing second to Mitt Romney.
But that success has not generated much excitement for Mr. Santorum this go round — at least since he announced his second bid in late May.
The 57-year-old is struggling to gain traction in the polls, and could be left out of the first GOP sanctioned debate in Ohio next month, which is being hosted by Fox, and limited to ten participants based on national polls.
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Looking to boost his standing, Mr. Santorum signaled at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor this week that he plans on spending some money on radio and television ads over the coming month.
“We are probably going to do a little bit more television and radio this month than we otherwise would have,” Mr. Santorum said.
Others are on more solid financial footing.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign reported raising $11.4 million, while former Texas Gov. Rick Perry raised more than $1.1 million and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal raised $578,000, according to FEC filings.
The quarterly reports from several of candidates had yet to post as of Wednesday night — though several candidates had already announced what they planned to post.
Sen. Marco Rubio’s camp said the Florida Republican received $12 million and Sen. Ted Cruz’s camp announced the Texas Republican received more than $10 million.
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Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s team said he had raised $8.3 million, compared to $2 million for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and $1.4 million for former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.
The slate of candidates also will be bolstered by supportive super PACs, which have the ability to raise unlimited amounts of money and are expected to play a much larger role in the 2016 campaign than they did in the 2012 race.
The pro-Bush Right to Rise USA announced it had raised $103 million, while the Keep the Promise political action committees backing Mr. Cruz announced they raised just under $38 million.
Conservative Solutions PAC, which is supporting Mr. Rubio, said it had raised $16 million. A trio of super PACs raised almost $17 million for Mr. Perry and the pro-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie America Leads announced it raked in $11 million.
Mr. Huckabee’s supporters, according to news reports, raised $6 million, while Mrs. Fiorina’s allies reeled in $3.4 million and Mr. Jindal’s $3.7 million.
Some of the money of the money is already being spent.
Mr. Rubio’s camp reserved more than $10 million in television airtime in the early primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — starting in November and running through the February contests in those states.
America Leads plunked down $2.8 million on behalf of Mr. Christie for airtime in New Hampshire from Nov. 16 to Feb. 9.
The pro-Christie political operation also is set to begin running spots in New Hampshire next week, following in the footsteps of the super PAC supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich, New Day for America, which reportedly raised $11.3 million, and has been up on the air in the Granite State.
Mr. Kasich is expected to enter the race next week.
The New York Times, meanwhile, reported that Mr. Perry’s affiliated super PACs are spending money to run ads on national cable networks in an attempt to boost his candidacy and his chances to making the first debate stage. Mrs. Fiorina’s backers have taken a similar tack, running ads on conservative talk radio.
Like Mr. Santorum, Mr. Perry and Mrs. Fiorina are on the debate bubble.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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