WASHINGTON — (CNN) Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign raised $13.4 million in the third quarter, an aide told CNN, a haul that could help the former Florida governor quiet concerns about the state of his campaign.
The question for Bush, who has built a formidable campaign with top-flight staff in all the early states, is whether he can sustain it.
Bush has $10 million cash-on-hand, the campaign aide said.
His total is in the neighborhood of the number that his allies and donors had expected for the third quarter, as he has struggled to get attention in the shadow of Donald Trump. But mired in the middle of the pack in early state polls, it is less clear whether he can continue raising money at a pace that will allow him to run a front-runner’s campaign.
While Bush snapped up talent and began organizing early in the states like New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina — a state where he is opening two new offices next week — Trump’s campaign is also moving quickly to build his own operation in those states.
Thursday is the deadline for all campaigns to file their third-quarter fundraising reports.
In a memo to Bush supporters, campaign manager Danny Diaz said the fundraising number is “particularly noteworthy given the depth of the current field.”
“We knew from the start this was going to be a hard fought and close race, but few could have anticipated just how volatile this field would be,” he wrote.
And he emphasized that the campaign is playing the long game. “The overall effort supporting Jeb will be better funded than any other in the entire field and the campaign has a formidable grassroots organization in the early states that is making thousands of voter contacts and recruiting volunteers for February,” Diaz wrote.
Brett Doster, Bush’s strategic lead consultant for South Carolina, noted the campaign is expanding its operation in the Palmetto State as part of the long-term plan. “This is part of a bigger strategy,” he said. “It’s impossible for a presidential campaign to be successful long-term if they don’t run a balanced campaign between air war versus ground game.”
Doster added: “We have the resources we need to go deep into this primary process. “Nobody is going to have a headquarters in Columbia and three field offices this early in the campaign.”
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