One story from this year’s primary races has been big names candidates who spend themselves out of the contest for president. Rick Perry and Scott Walker, both high profile governors who were seen as formidable candidates going in, have had to drop out due to funding issues.
With that in mind, the latest rundown of campaigns and their current financial outlook has some experts reshaping their predictions.
The Hill reports:
Now that the third quarter fundraising reports have been made public, we know a few things to be true about other Republican candidates:
1. Remarkably, Sen. Ted Cruz’s (Texas) campaign has the most cash on hand: $13.5 million.
2. Sen. Marco Rubio’s (Fla.) campaign has slightly more cash on hand than former Gov. Jeb Bush’s (Fla.), although general elections funds may account for that difference.
3. Sen. Rand Paul’s (Ky.) campaign has spent 94 percent of the money it has raised for this race, and has $2.1 million cash on hand because it transferred 75 percent of that amount from his Senate campaign. He is financially running on fumes.
4. Cruz and Rubio are both running the most efficient campaigns with the lowest burn-rates among the top tier candidates. Fiorina is also running a very efficient campaign.
5. The campaigns of Govs. John Kasich (Ohio) and Chris Christie (N.J.) raised similar amounts and have similar cash on hand and will be in a steel-cage death match in New Hampshire.
6. The cash on hand numbers show a marginal difference, with Bush having $10.3 million, Rubio $11 million, Carson $11.5 million and Cruz $13.5 million. One of these four individuals, plus Trump, is most likely to be the ultimate nominee.
7. Carson’s $20 million haul is impressive, but he is spending a huge amount of money to raise those funds. And he is now inexplicably taking two weeks off from the campaign trail to promote his new book.
The new financial reporting paints a grim picture for Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Meanwhile, the three candidates who seem best positioned to go the distance are Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Carly Fiorina.
