Romney Raises Second-Highest Monthly Total Ever in June

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event in Sterling, Va.

One hundred and six million dollars. That's how much the Romney campaign announced it raised in June, the second-highest monthly total ever for a U.S. presidential campaign.  It's also considerably more than the Obama campaign raised, whose $71 million haul made June its best fund-raising month to date.

June was the second straight month that Romney outraised the president, and in May the Romney campaign raised $77 million while the Obama campaign raised $60 million.

While the Romney campaign raised $35 million more than Obama in June, the GOP frontrunner's campaign did it with 160,000 fewer donors. As he has done throughout the campaign, Romney attracted a small number larger donors, while Obama attracted a large number of smaller donors.

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Less than one fifth of the Romney's June total came from donors who gave $250 or less—with the lion's share coming from joint fundraising committees that allow donors to give lump sums of $75,800 by donating to the campaign, the national party, and state parties.

The nine-digit fundraising mark was a milestone for the Romney campaign and its allies. The campaign emailed its supporters to highlight the number several days before its disclosure deadline, and some allies, such as RNC Political Director Rick Wiley, took to the Twitter even before that.

.@messina2012, check this out bro, we raised north of $100 million in June.I'm assuming u & Axe will need beers 2night bro

— Rick Wiley (@rick_wiley) July 5, 2012

The Obama campaign used the moment to try to rally supporters via email and Twitter.

While June was our best month so far, we still got beat: Romney & the GOP brought in $106 million. Help close the gap: OFA.BO/79SQKy

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 9, 2012

In an email to supporters Ann Marie Habershaw, the Obama campaign's chief operating officer, asked supporters to keep the money race from getting away.

"This is no joke," Habershaw's email read. "If we can't keep the money race close, it becomes that much harder to win in November."

Seth Cline is a reporter with U.S. News and World Report. Contact him at scline@usnews.com or follow him on Twitter.

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