On Friday, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, announced the RNC raised $18.02 million during the first quarter of 2013, 27% less than the $25.2 million in receipts the RNC reported in the first quarter of 2009. Both reports were filed to account for contributions and expenditures in the first full quarter after a Presidential election.
In the first quarter of 2009, Republicans had just lost the White House for the first time in 8 years. The Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate in Congress. President Obama’s approval rating was over 60%. The party still managed to raise more money than it did this year in the comparable reporting period.
Breitbart News’s review of FEC records showed that the RNC’s total receipts for the first quarter of 2013 were $18.3 million, slightly more than the $18.02 million announced by Priebus. Of this $18.3 million, a total of $16.0 million came from individual contributions, with the remaining $2.3 million coming from transfers from related committees and other sources.
In the first quarter of 2009, $17.4 million of the $25.2 million in receipts came from individual contributions, while $7.8 million came from transfers from related committees and other sources.
Looking at individual contributions only, the decline was a less dramatic 6%.
In its Friday press release, the RNC compared its first quarter 2013 fundraising results with the first quarter of 2011. According to the statement, first quarter 2013 total raised was $18.02 million, $920,000 (or roughly 5.5%) more than the $17.1 million it said was raised in the first quarter of 2011.