Kasich super PAC raises more than $11 million

New Day for America, the super PAC supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich, raised more than $11 million between April 20 and June 30 of this year, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

The super PAC plans to report these numbers when it files its 2015 semi-annual report with the IRS. (The super PAC previously raised money as a 527 and only filed as a super PAC last week, so its FEC report isn’t due until later this year.)


Specifically, New Day for America raised $11,130,730.32 from 166 reportable contributions — with $6.613 million coming from Kasich’s home state of Ohio, $2.233 million from California, $705,000 from New York, and $402,000 from Florida. Seventy of the donations came from Ohio, 22 from California, 14 from Florida and five from New York.

Of those donations, 34 were of $100,000 or more. Donors who gave $1 million included the Wendt Family Trust, Schottenstein Management Company and Tom Rastin, an Ohio-based Republican donor who donated to then-Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett’s re-election campaign in the 2014 cycle.

Other names familiar to Kasich’s political world that donated to the super PAC were Floyd Kvamme, the retired venture capitalist, who donated $100,000; and Philip Geier Jr. of the Geier Group, who donated $500,000 and is a member of New Day for America’s board; and Jim Dicke, a big player in the Ohio Republican Party and the chairman emeritus of the Crown Equipment Corp. Dicke donated $250,000.

Kasich’s super PAC haul places him in the middle tier of candidates, behind Jeb Bush ($103 million), Ted Cruz ($37 million), Scott Walker ($20 million), Rick Perry ($16.8 million), and Marco Rubio ($16 million). Chris Christie’s super PAC has also reportedly raised around $11 million.

A separate political action committee supporting Kasich, New Day for America Independent, raised $600,000 in the month of June, a GOP operative connected to that PAC said on Thursday. In total, New Day for America and New Day for America Independent raised $11,730,730.

A new Quinnipiac University national poll released Thursday found Kasich with 5 percent support of those surveyed, putting him in eighth place behind Donald Trump, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Sen. Marco Rubio. The poll found Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tied with Kasich.

Dicke, in an interview with POLITICO, said the Kasich campaign wasn’t too concerned about polling numbers at this state of the race.

“I think most people really haven’t focused on it,” Dicke said. “And so to a certain extent, all these polls have been name recognition contests, not really contests where the folks know anything about the candidates or who they’d like to be president.”

Kasich has pinned his early-state hopes on New Hampshire, where his campaign is claiming some momentum since the governor’s official announcement on July 21.

“We are building as deep and wide an organization in New Hampshire as I have ever been a part of, including John [McCain]’s in 2000,” senior Kasich adviser John Weaver told POLITICO last week. “It’s clear voters are finding something real and refreshing in John Kasich.”

A Monmouth University poll out Tuesday found Kasich with 7 percent in New Hampshire, putting him in fourth place in the Granite State behind Trump, Bush, and Walker.