Female donors help Hillary Clinton bring in $47.5 million in second quarter

The $47.5 million Hillary Rodham Clinton raised during her first two and half months as a presidential candidate this year was boosted by a predominantly female donor base, her campaign said Wednesday.

Of the more the 250,000 contributors who donated to Clinton, 61 percent are women. That puts her on track to outstrip the presidential high-water mark set by President Obama in 2012, when 47 percent of donors who gave him more than $200 were women, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The surge of female-driven contributions for Clinton could fuel a partisan divide when it comes to gender and political money. In 2012, women gave 52 percent of their federal donations to Democratic candidates, a slight edge the party has held since 1998, according to the Center.

Donations under $200 made up just under 17 percent of Clinton's total raised. That was in sharp contrast with Republican Jeb Bush: Just 3 percent of the $11.4 million he raised came from such low-dollar donations.Clinton's small-donor base is larger than it was in her first quarter of fundraising in the 2008 race, when just 9 percent of her money came from contributions under $200, according to data analyzed by the Campaign Finance Institute.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/07/15/female-donors-help-hillary-clinton-bring-in-47-5-million-in-second-quarter/