Ted Cruz's entire decision of whether to jump-start his presidential candidacy at the end of a fundraising quarter hinged on the ability to raise $1 million in the first week.

The Texas senator ended up hitting that milestone in just over a day.



Donations to Ted Cruz's campaign, during his presidential announcement. (Click to enlarge)

Courtesy of Cruz for President

Fueled by a team of 10 data scientists who are tasked with conducting real-time analysis of prospective supporters, the reach of and return on Cruz's rollout has already exceeded the initial expectations of even the campaign's top advisers.

While initial media reports detailed Cruz raising $500,000 on the first day, the candidate actually reached the $1 million marker near 2:30 A.M. Tuesday, just past the first crucial 24 hours since the campaign's launch on Twitter midnight Monday.

An avalanche of small dollar donations goosed the top line, according to data provided exclusively to U.S. News by the Cruz campaign.

Two-thirds of Cruz's initial contributions were under $100. Checks of less than $250 amounted to 95 percent of Cruz's rush to his first million.

Texas, unsurprisingly, was his top donor state, followed by California, Florida and Virginia.



Donations to Ted Cruz's presidential campaign, by location. The darker the color, the higher the concentration of donors. Courtesy of Cruz for President

But it wasn't only about shaking the money tree.

Because they were to be first to turn the ignition key on a 2016 candidacy, Cruz's political brain trust also sought to expand the scope of its rollout, beyond the customary single day flurry of media coverage. His advisors mapped out a carefully planned succession of events designed to build on each other and churn over a week's span of time.



On Saturday, word began to float out to reporters about an "important speech" Cruz would deliver on Monday at Liberty University. By Saturday night, Cruz's hometown newspaper, The Houston Chronicle, had nailed down the scoop: Monday morning was go-time.

But first, the tweets.

At 8:05 PM Sunday night, Cruz placed word on Twitter that "around midnight there will be some news you won't want to miss." Four hours and four minutes later, just after midnight Monday, he tweeted, "I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support!"



Twitter engagement with Ted Cruz's announcement. Courtesy of Cruz for President

The tweet was viewed 1.1 million times and the ensuing Facebook post scored more than 800,000 views and reached 2.6 million.

Of course, not all the social media feedback was positive. On Yik Yak, the app for posting anonymous missives, there was plenty of griping and joking from Liberty students who were required to be there. Twitter and Facebook drew ample Cruz detractors as well, with many jabbing him for failing to own the rights to TedCruz.com and other websites bearing his name. Still, the overall optics of the announcement were favorable. He was also blessed with luck, of course. If the Germanwings plane had fallen out of the sky and into the French Alps a day sooner, it could've drained his coverage significantly.



Ted Cruz's announcement on Facebook. Courtesy of Cruz for President

"Nothing happened," a top Cruz strategist told U.S. News, almost exhaling in relief.

Following the Liberty University announcement, which dominated most of cable news Monday and showed Cruz basking before a youthful, exuberant audience, the candidate hopped on a plane not to Iowa or New Hampshire -- but New York. In addition to a fundraising event there, he did Sean Hannity's radio show as well as sat for the full-hour on his Fox News Channel primetime television program.

The next morning, even as Cruz was headed to NBC's Today Show for the first joint interview with his wife, Heidi, he still made the front pages of most of the major daily newspapers in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The outset of the Cruz endeavor is demonstrating how crucial analytics will be in building on his initial success. When Cruz sat for an interview with Fox's Megyn Kelly on Tuesday night, he pulled in 952 donors who contributed $70,486 as a result of the appearance, according to Cruz's data crunchers.



Visitors to TedCruz.org, during Ted Cruz's appearance on "The Kelly File." Courtesy of Cruz for President

The 10 staffers who hold PhDs in behavioral science or analytics monitored the profiles of those hitting the website during the Kelly interview and quickly redirected social media and Internet-based ad campaigns to maximize the output of their potential targets.

This graph shows how traffic to the Cruz website spiked during his Kelly appearance. He saw a similar, smaller bump -- yielding about $39,000 -- when he was on Glenn Beck's radio program in the morning, demonstrated in the graphic that follows.

Cruz's team believes their rollout sets a higher bar for the Republican aspirants who come after him -- namely, all of them.​​​​​​​​​. He skipped the exploratory step, went right for the full announcement at a unorthodox time (at the end of a month and quarter) in which he visited neither his home state or an early nominating state. (He embarks on an early state tour -- guaranteed to suck up more media, next week.)



Donors making contributions to TedCruz.org, during Cruz's appearance on Glenn Beck's radio show. Courtesy of Cruz for President

"Imagine Mike Huckabee doing an exploratory committee now. How much oxygen does that get?," challenged the Cruz strategist. "How do you announce and fly around your home state? What's that worth?"

Ironically, Cruz's bold move was in part, inspired by Jeb Bush, who initially announced his consideration of a presidential campaign in mid-December a few weeks before Christmas, when voters were busy, distracted and assumed to be focused on anything but politics.

Cruz's team eyed Bush's bold move and thought they could break the conventional timetable mold too.

There's an unwritten rule in presidential politics that says a campaign shouldn't launch at the end of March, right before the fresh fundraising quarter of April. The rule dictates a candidate would want a full three-month cycle to raise money before having to report it out to the punditry.