Obama narrowly outraises Romney in August

By Holly Bailey, Yahoo! News

 (Joshua Roberts/Pool via Getty Images)

President Barack Obama narrowly outraised Mitt Romney in August, raising more than $114 million compared to Romney's $112 million.

It's the first time in four months Obama raised more campaign cash than Romney. The total marked a major jump in fundraising for Obama, who brought in $75 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee in July.

While Romney didn't quite match his Democratic rival's financial haul, August still marked the Republican presidential nominee's best fundraising month to date. In July, Romney raised $101 million for his campaign and the Republican National Committee.

According to the Romney campaign, more than 94 percent of his contributions in August were $250 or less—marking a major jump in small donors. And the GOP candidate ended the month with roughly $169 million cash on hand.

"Americans are not better off than they were four years ago and they are looking for a change of leadership," Spencer Zwick, Romney's national finance chairman, and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said in a joint statement. "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are offering bold solutions to our country's problems — that is why we are seeing such tremendous support from donors across the country."

The Obama campaign did not reveal its cash on hand total, but said more than 1.1 million people gave to the campaign last month. More than 98 percent of the contributions were $250 or less, according to the campaign. The average contribution was $58.

"The key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement.

Messina called the contributions a "critical downpayment on the organization we are building across the country."