Romney Raises $3.5 Million After Ryan Veep Choice

Romney Raises $3.5 Million After Ryan Veep Choice

Original: It's only been a matter of hours since the much anticipated announcement from the Romney campaign that Paul Ryan is his running mate in November, and it's already paid off in a big way. Romney press sectary Andrea Saul says they've already raised $1.2 million.

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We speculated that Mitt's veep announcement probably wouldn't pay off in terms of dollars and cents, but that was when the popular potentials were being listed as Rob Portman, Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal. A Ryan nomination is completely different, as the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza speculated a few hours ago. Ryan's hugely popular with big donors in New York City. 

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Whether they'll approach the $4.2 million the campaign raised in the 24 hours after the health care ruling remains to be seen, but they're already over 25 percent of that day's haul. All signs are pointing towards another slow month for the Romney fundraising team. 

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Update 5:08 p.m.: Andrea Saul reported about an hour ago that the campaign has now passed $2 million in donations today. We think it's too late in the day to end up surpassing the amount raised after Affordable Care was passed, but it could be close. 

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Update 11:46 a.m.: Andrea Saul reports the final 24 tally of donations after the Ryan announcement settled at $3.5 million. Not quite as much as the Affordable Care Act raised, but they were only off by $700,000.