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This statistic shows the total funds raised by U.S. presidential election candidates as of June 22, 2016. As of June 22, Hillary Clinton had the largest funds total at about 335 million U.S. dollars. br>
U.S. 2016 Elections: the money race - additional information

As of February 2016, the United States presidential elections are still in the early stages, but already large sums of money have been raised and spent in support of candidates and their parties. According to the Center for Responsive Politics research group, Hillary Clinton raised almost 230 million U.S. dollars in her 2008 nomination campaign and left the race with an estimated 22.5 million U.S. dollars in debt, at least 11.4 million U.S. dollars of which came from her own finances. Most of her funds in 2008 were raised with the help of individual contributions. In 2016, she is criticized by her biggest opponent in the nomination race, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, for taking advantage of the Citizen United 2010 ruling. This controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision lifted the limitations corporations and labor unions had in donating to a so-called super PAC (political action committee).

As of February 1, 2016, Clinton benefited from funds provided by super PACs amounting to almost 48 million U.S. dollars, but she comes in only second in the ranking of nominees supported by such committees, after Jeb Bush. The former Florida Governor, who is the son and brother to two former U.S. Presidents, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush respectively, has benefited from some 123 million U.S. dollars from super PACs. Almost 30 thousand television ads in support of his candidacy were funded by super PAC money, the most of any other presidential hopeful.

Super PACs are controversial because they are not the type of committee raising 50 dollar pledges, but rather millions of U.S. dollars from powerful and wealthy families and interest groups, which in turn can be suspected of wanting to influence their supported candidates’ views. According to the New York Times, generous donations to super PACs in 2015-2016 have come from such figures as billionaire philanthropist and investor George Soros, who pledged 7 billion U.S. dollars to Hillary Clinton or C.V. Starr & Company Inc., a company run by former CEO of the A.I.G insurance company Maurice R. Greenberg, who donated 1o million U.S. dollars to Jeb Bush. As opposed to 2012, when business magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam made the largest donation, in the 2016 election Donald Trump himself has made the largest contribution, almost 13 million U.S. dollars, naturally to his own campaign.