Pro-Clinton super PAC raises nearly $11.8 million

This post has been updated.

Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, raised nearly $11.8 million in March, the group reported Wednesday.

The March haul brings to $67 million the group has collected so far for the presidential election, and wealthy Democratic donors have pledged to give another $49 million, officials said. Counting those pledges, Priorities has raised more than $116 million.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders still is challenging Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, but Priorities already is focused on the general-election battle and has reserved $125 million in television and digital advertising to start once the last primary ends in June.

The super-wealthy Democrats already writing big checks to Priorities include New York hedge-funder James Simons, who contributed another $3.5 million to the group last month. In all, Simons has donated $7 million to the pro-Clinton PAC this year.

Entertainment executive Haim Saban and his philanthropist wife, Cheryl, donated a combined $2 million in March, according to documents the group filed late Wednesday afternoon with the Federal Election Commission.

"Thanks to our fundraising success in the coming weeks and months we will take additional steps to aggressively contrast the dangerous extremism of Republicans like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's record of raising wages, breaking barriers and protecting our country," Priorities spokesman Justin Barasky said in an email.

Priorities' fundraising totals, first reported by CNN, come a day after Clinton's big win in the New York primary and as candidates and super PACs prepared to file reports with federal regulators, detailing their March fundraising and spending.

Contributing: Christopher Schnaars