The re-election campaign of President Barack Obama announced this morning that it had raised $181 million in September along with the Democratic National Committee, far surpassing anything the Obama or Romney campaigns have raised in the 2012 cycle.

Campaign manager Jim Messina sent out an email to supporters this morning:

I have some huge news, and I want you to be the first to hear about it.



We not only surpassed 10 million donations so far in 2012 to the campaign and the Democratic Party -- a historic record for grassroots politics.



We also raised $181 million in September from 1.8 million Americans -- more than 567,000 of whom gave for the first time. That's by far our biggest month yet.



More important than how much we raised is how we did it: The average donation was $53, and 98 percent of our contributions were $250 or less.

In August, Obama outraised Mitt Romney for the first time since April. The Romney campaign, however, has not announced its September fundraising totals.

Obama's September haul falls just short of the $193 million record raised by the campaign and the DNC in September 2008.