Slowed Fundraising gives a good account of Jeb Bush’s troubled Presidential Campaign

When Jeb Bush entered the Presidential race, many expected his fundraising campaign to be unstoppable. At this point of time, Jeb Bush has about $10 million on hand. The fundraising campaign started promisingly enough in June. However, his campaign has seen a significant decline over the past few months. This is shown by the fact that Jeb Bush raised only $2million more in the past three months than he did in the first fifteen days of his campaign.

Jeb Bush is a former Governor of Florida while his father and brother have served as U.S. Presidents. This is the reason he was able to amass $103 million war chest with his super PAC earlier this year. However, his actual fundraising campaign has been a troubled one. From July to September, Jeb Bush raised only $ 13.4 million and spent about 86 percent of the total over the quarter, starting October with only $10 million at hand.

Jeb Bush’s fundraising pace decelerated in recent months and as a result of this he has slipped from second to third place in the national polls. The polls and the third quarter fundraising tell the whole story of the Republican candidates campaign. The undisputed power of Donald Trump as the GOP leader is probably the biggest surprise that polling reveals. According to Pollster.com, Donald Trump led the average of national polls in July and hasn’t taken a back seat since. In fact, his support has grown in the past few months. According to Pollster.com, Trump’s national poll average was just under 15 percent. Today, his national poll average is over 28 percent.

This is in stark contrast to what Jeb Bush has experienced in the past few months. Jeb Bush’s national poll average was 14 percent in July, putting him in second place just behind Trump. Today, he is fourth overall as his poll average has fallen by about 8 percent. The slowed fundraising has contributed significantly to this decline in popularity.

The interpretation of Jeb Bush’s fundraising prowess is something his advisers have questioned. They often use Mitt Romney as an example and argue that he had the biggest fundraising network of any of the candidates in 2011 yet raised less than a million dollars more than what Bush did in the third quarter. However, what they fail to realize is the fact that Romney had raised just over $34 million by this time in 2011 while Jeb Bush has raised only $25 million up to this point. Also Romney had $5 million more on hand in October 2011 than what Jeb Bush has now.

We can only truly compare the fundraising campaign of Romney and Bush once the fourth quarter is over. Romney raised $24 million in that quarter to end up with $20 million on hand and Jeb Bush will have to speed up his fundraising campaign significantly if he wants to end up anywhere near that.

Whatever happens in the fourth quarter, one thing is for sure—Bush’s slowing fundraising provides a good corollary to his troubled presidential campaign.