Mitt Romney rakes in $4.6 million just 24 hours after 'Obamacare' ruling
| Washington
(Updated at 11:08 EDT Friday, June 29.)
Mitt Romney could win from losing. Conservatives are hopping mad over the US Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act, and they鈥檙e flooding the Republican presidential candidate鈥檚 campaign coffers with cash.
In the 24 hours since the court handed down its decision Thursday, the Romney campaign took in $4.6 million from more than 47,000 donations online, according to campaign spokesman Andrea Saul, who tweeted the news at 10:20 Friday morning.
At 5:23 Friday morning, the post-decision 鈥渢ake鈥� was already at $4.2 million and more than 42,000 donors, Ms. Saul reported in an earlier tweet.
Within hours of the ruling, the Romney campaign sent out a fundraising e-mail. 鈥淭oday, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. But regardless of what the court said about the constitutionality of the law, Obamacare is bad medicine, it is bad policy, and when I鈥檓 president, the bad news of Obamacare will be over,鈥� the e-mail read.
It concluded with the ask: "Donate $10 or more to put a stop to the policies of Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats."
For Mr. Romney, just as important as the cash are the new donors 鈥� not only because of their money but because they are potential volunteers. In particular, Romney has struggled to attract small donations. As of the end of May, only 11 percent of his money had come from donors who gave $200 or less, compared with 41 percent for President Obama, according to the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) in Washington.
Still, the cash is nice. Romney had a good fundraising month in May, but Obama鈥檚 was better, according to the CFI. 聽
鈥淩omney鈥檚 $23.4 million in receipts doubled his campaign鈥檚 $11.7 million of the previous month,鈥� the institute reports. 鈥淏ut Obama鈥檚 $39.8 million was 70 percent higher than Romney鈥檚.鈥�
The Obama campaign has not advertised fundraising numbers since the court announced it was upholding health-care reform.
