'Grassroots' candidate Cruz posts $14.2 million fundraising haul

Republican Ted Cruz says he's raised $14.2 million since announcing his presidential campaign in late March, positioning himself as a formidable fundraiser in what's becoming a crowded field for the GOP nomination.

When combined with previously disclosed contributions to super PACs promoting his candidacy, supporters have contributed more than $51 million to help him secure the Republican nomination, his campaign said Sunday.

Official numbers based on Federal Election Commission filings as of June 30 won't be released until later this month, which makes direct comparisons to other Republican candidates impossible. But Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign has said it raised a record $45 million during a similar three-month period.

The Cruz campaign boasted "eye-popping fundraising haul" even as he tries to downplay his reliance on big donors.

"The Washington money isn't with us," he told Paste BN's Capital Download recently. "It comes from courageous conservatives all over the country."

And on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, the 44-year-old freshman senator from Texas said his underdog campaign was possible only because he was rejected for a job in the George W. Bush White House.

"Here's a simple reality. If you run a grassroots campaign -- our campaign for the Senate, we were opposed by all of the money, all of the donors, all of the establishment. It came from the people. It came from young people and Hispanics and Republican women. It came from hundreds of VFW halls and Dennys' and IHOPs."

The campaign said it had more than 175,000 contributions from 120,000 individual donors, giving Cruz an average contribution of about $81.