Clinton hauls in $45 million in first quarter

Hillary Clinton raised $45 million in the first quarter of her ongoing campaign in the Democratic presidential primaries. Campaign manager, Robby Mook, emailed supporters with the announcement today. In the email, Mr Mook called the figure  "a new record" this early in a presidential campaign.

Hillary Clinton was expected to haul in huge cash because of her stature and connections within the political world. With little competition within the Democratic primary her campaign was expected to benefit from donations across the liberal world. Her campaign finance chair has said in the past that Hillary needs about $100 million in the presidential primary. This figure puts her close to the total amount.The figure is also larger than what President Obama raised in his 2012 campaign--$41.9 million. It's also larger than what Hillary herself raised in the first quarter of 2008--$19 million

For the past few months Hillary has headlined fundraisers from New York to California to Chicago. Her team has also employed a strategy to tap into grassroots donors called "Hillstarters". So far direct email has been used to solicit for low dollar donations in a bid to establish a wider network of donors for the long haul.

"Many people doubted whether we could build an organization powered by so many grassroots supporters. Today's announcement proves them wrong." Mook wrote.