March Fundraising

[Likely Voter]

It's that time again. The campaign finance reports came out last night submitted on the FEC site. Here is a summary of everyone who was still in the race at the beginning of March (in $millions)

DEMS
Candidate   IN   OUT   CASH (minus debt)
Sanders   46.0   45.7   17.5
Clinton   26.8   28.7   29.0

GOP
Candidate   IN   OUT   CASH (minus debt)
Cruz   12.5   11.8   8.8   
Trump   14.6*   13.8   -34.6
Kasich   4.5   4.6   1.2

Rubio   2.6   4.3   2.7   [out March 15]
Carson   0.5   2.0   3.0   [out March 4]



*including 11.5m loan from Trump

[Likely Voter]

Quick thoughts
- Sanders gap over Clinton in both fundraising and spending increased approaching 2:1
- Sanders is within $1m of Clinton in total raised for the entire cycle and has outspent her $185.9M vs 168.4M
- Trump's lending to his own campaign has increased with the largest monthly loan yet in March
- Rubio and Carson had enough cash to carry on when they dropped out

[Likely Voter]

Trump's campaign is 34 million dollars in debt??

That $34mm is presumably mostly money that the Trump campaign owes to Donald J. Trump because he has loaned the campaign money.  He is entitled to be paid back eventually.

That is the case. And that is why I used the term 'self-financing' instead of 'self-funding' He has donated some money to his campaign but the vast majority of it is in the form of loans. I suspect he expects that money to eventually be paid back, it may take years of selling 'Make America Great' merchandise, but he has gone out of his way to not truly 'self-fund'