WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign said Wednesday that it has raised $45 million since its launch in mid-April, with the vast majority of its donors having given less than $100 each.
But while Clinton's aides touted their success with small-dollar donors, the Democrat also pulled in a large chunk of campaign cash from donors who are giving her the maximum allowed by law.
Clinton is among more than a dozen White House hopefuls to declare their 2016 ambitions in the past three months, and Tuesday was the last day for their campaigns to collect donations that must be reported to federal regulators by July 15.
Clinton offered a preview Wednesday of what she'll disclose in the formal recording of who donated to her campaign in the past three months.
The campaign of the former first lady and secretary of state said she is on track to break the record for primary money raised in a candidate's first fundraising quarter, set by President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2011 at $41.9 million.
"Thank you so much for being part of this campaign. I'm grateful for all you've done and excited for what comes next," Clinton said in a handwritten message, a photo of which was posted on Twitter.
Clinton already is using some of that money to build the kind of national organization needed to compete in the general election, having placed organizers in all 50 states and the U.S. territories.
The campaign released few details beyond its overall fundraising total. It must disclose the identities of donors who have given at least $200, plus information about how it has spent the money, in the report due this month to the Federal Election Commission.
John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman, said on Twitter that 91 percent of all of Clinton's donations were for $100 or less.
"Many people doubted whether we could build an organization powered by so many grassroots supporters," campaign manager Robby Mook wrote in an email to supporters. "Today's announcement proves them wrong."
Left unsaid was how much the campaign has raised from donors asked to give the legal maximum of $2,700. In recent weeks, Clinton has traveled the country raising money at celebrity-studded events, exclusive gatherings in Hollywood estates and inside Manhattan penthouses.
Clinton has raised at least $19.5 million at 61 such fundraisers, an amount that makes up at least 43 percent of her fundraising total. That percentage is sure to be even higher because The Associated Press used the lowest ticket prices for her events to calculate the total raised at each.
The Clinton campaign's emphasis on small-dollar donors isn't unexpected. One of Clinton's challengers in the Democratic camp, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has aggressively courted the party's most liberal grass-roots voters by running largely on a platform of reducing income inequality.
In Wisconsin on Wednesday, Sanders touted his progressive credentials in a speech before his largest crowd to date, filling the 10,000 seats of Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Madison.
"Tonight we have made a little bit of history," Sanders said. "Tonight, we have more people at any meeting for a candidate of president of the United States than any other candidate."
Sanders, a 73-year-old self-described democratic socialist, is trying to appeal to the most liberal Democrats with his message of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, bridging the gap between rich and poor, changing the criminal-justice system and raising taxes on the wealthy and Wall Street.
"The big money interests -- Wall Street, corporate America, all of these guys -- have so much power that no president can defeat them unless there is an organized grass-roots movement making them an offer they can't refuse," Sanders said.
He has yet to release his fundraising totals.
Information for this article was contributed by Ken Thomas of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/02/2015