Hillary Clinton shakes hands with supporters after speaking during a campaign stop at the Adel Family Fun Center in Adel, Iowa, Jan. 27, 2016, ahead of the Iowa Caucus. | Getty Pro-Clinton super PAC raised nearly $41 million in 2015

DAVENPORT Iowa — Priorities USA Action, the main super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, raised nearly $41 million in 2015, according to a memo from its chief strategist, Guy Cecil.

The group also has raised more than $9.6 million since the beginning of January, it said, and it has commitments of $42 million more — adding up to a total of more than $92.5 million.


It’s a considerable haul for the group that had a rough first half of 2015 as it went through a staff shakeup, and its nearly $45 million in cash on hand means that the pro-Clinton effort — between the super PAC and the campaign itself — has roughly $83 million to spend, according to the groups’ latest disclosures.

The super PAC, which supported President Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012, raised $15.6 million in the first half of 2015, and POLITICO reported in August that it had brought in $40 million in donations and commitments by that point, indicating a serious ramp-up in activity in the summer.

The group has thus far remained silent in the primary between Clinton and Bernie Sanders, but it has launched a series of Web ads supporting Clinton and criticizing Republicans. And though it has not hit Sanders, its very existence provides Clinton with a big-money machine that the Vermont senator cannot match — and which he rails against — despite his own online fundraising prowess.

Priorities is required to disclose its donors in Federal Election Commission filing, which has not yet been submitted.

In a cheeky press release of its own, Bernie Sanders' campaign 'announced' the amount of super PAC money supporting his candidacy: zero dollars.

"He won't raise any money for a super PAC this year either," his spokesman Michael Briggs said. “Bernie doesn’t want billionaires’ money. He doesn’t have a super PAC. He believes you can’t fix a rigged economy by taking part in the corrupt campaign finance system in which politicians take unlimited sums of money from Wall Street and other powerful special interests and then pretend it doesn’t influence them."