Hillary Clinton is upping her fundraising game as she campaigns for president in next year's election.
The Democrat held three fundraisers in Washington, D.C. Thursday,
USA Today reports. Clinton has vowed to campaign — and raise money — in smaller, more intimate atmospheres, which means she may need to hold a lot more fundraisers than her Republican counterparts who are taking in truckloads of cash.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is expected to join the race,
is reportedly on pace to bring in as much as $100 million in the first quarter of this year.
Clinton has no shortage of cash either, and she has been the leading Democrat in every presidential poll for months. But that doesn't mean she can take it easy when it comes to raising funds during a presidential campaign.
Bush is one of several candidates raising cash through a super PAC before they officially launch their campaign.
"It's a radically different approach to structuring campaigns," elections expert Anthony Corrado told USA Today regarding the use of super PACs.
Corrado added that he thinks overall spending in the 2016 presidential campaign could hit $4 billion — roughly double what President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney spent in
during the 2012 election cycle.
USA Today reports that up to 170 people were expected to attend each of the Clinton fundraisers slated for Thursday at a cost of $2,700 per person.
Clinton will travel to California next week and will attend a fundraiser at the home of
Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmentalist who is expected to give a large chunk of cash to her campaign.
But Clinton's fundraising totals, according to USA Today, might not reach the numbers recorded on the GOP side. Bush said recently his Super PAC, Right to Rise, set a 100-day fundraising record among Republicans.
Other GOP contenders, such as Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz, are also bringing in healthy sums of money. And Florida Sen.
Marco Rubio has the support of billionaire car dealership owner Norman Braman.
The Koch Brothers, meanwhile, have budgeted nearly $900 million for Republicans in the 2016 race.
"We have never seen the kind of money we anticipate being spent in this election cycle," AFL-CIO political director Michael Podhorzer told USA Today.
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