1. 2016 Presidential Campaign Fundraising: Super PAC Graphics From Around the Web
Published August 5, 2015
National Journal Presentation Credits
Producers: Alexander Perry
Director: Afzal Bari

2. These Are the Ways Candidates, Parties, and Groups Can Raise Money to Influence an Election
Find this graphic on Bloomberg Politics
Analysis
The rise in influence of Super PACs is closely liked to the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
This ruling said that political spending is protected under the First Amendment, which permits corporations, unions and other groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on political activity, as long as it is done independently of a party or a candidate.
Sources: Bloomberg Politics, “The Rules of Campaign Cash”; US News & World Report, “How Citizens United has Changed Politics in 5 Years.”

3. Strong Support from Big Donors Has Helped Bush and Clinton Outpace the Others in Fundraising
Four Different Ways to Look at the Campaigns of each 2016 Presidential Candidate
Find this graphic at FiveThirtyEight
Sources: FiveThirtyEight, “There’s Top-Heavy Super PACs, And There’s Super Top-Heavy Super PACs”

4. Jeb Bush’s Campaign Has Nearly Twice as Much Money as the Next Candidate, Mostly Thanks to His Super PAC
How Candidates Have Funded their 2016 Presidential Campaigns
Find this Graphic on InsideGov
Analysis
Jeb Bush’s Right to Rise Super PAC raised $103 million in the first six months of 2015, by far the largest amount raised by any candidate-specific Super PAC this cycle.
Priorities USA Action, the SuperPAC supporting Hillary Clinton, raised $15.7 million. By comparison, Priorities USA raised less than $3.4 million at this point in 2011, when it was supporting Obama’s campaign.
Sources: InsideGov, “Two Graphs Show Which 2016 Candidates are Really Winning the Money Race”, NPR, “Super PAC Fundraising Already Dwarfs 2012 Levels.”

5. Bernie Sanders Leads in Ratio of Small Donations, while Jeb Bush Trails All Other Candidates
The Proportion of Small Donations to Large Donations (Over $200) Across Candidate Committees
Find this Graphic on InsideGov
Analysis
Jeb Bush trails all candidates in ratio of small donations, with only 3% of his fundraising coming from donations of under $200.
Sources: InsideGov, “Two Graphs Show Which 2016 Candidates are Really Winning the Money Race”

6. Most Super PACs Have Raised the Majority of Their Money From a Small Group of Donors.
Find this graphic at FiveThirtyEight
Analysis
The top five percent of Super PAC donors account for more than 50 percent of total PAC fundraising.
To demonstrate this top-heaviness, the super PACs backing Sen. Ted Cruz raised $38 million in the first half of the year, from 45 donors - more than 80 percent of that total came from just four donors.
Sources: FiveThirtyEight, “There’s Top-Heavy Super PACs, And There’s Super Top-Heavy Super PACs”

7. Million-Dollar Donors for the 2016 Presidential Race
Most of 2016 Fundraising Money is Flowing into Outside Groups, Like Super PACs
Million-Dollar Donors for the 2016 Presidential Race
Total Amount Contributed to Campaigns and Political Organizations (Recipient Candidate)
(Cruz, Jindal)
(Cruz)
(Perry)
(Rubio)
(Walker)
(Bush, Christie, Walker,
Perry, Cruz, Rubio)
(Bush)
(Huckabee, Christie)
(Rubio)
(Cruz)
(Paul)
(Walker, Bush, Cruz, Graham)
(Bush)
(Walker)
(Trump)
DONORS
*Graph above is only a partial representation of donors who contributed more than $1 million to a campaign-related political organizations
Sources: New York Times, “Million Dollar Donors in the 2016 Presidential Race”; OpenSecrets, “A Few New Faces – but not many – among megadonors to presidential super PACs”