Obama hits $7.2m jackpot after Super Tuesday

A juggernaut of support for Barack Obama since Super Tuesday has raised an astonishing $7.2m (£3.7m) for his presidential campaign – at a time when his rival Hillary Clinton's campaign is, in essence, broke.

Mrs Clinton had to quietly lend her campaign $5m from her private funds just to keep it afloat before the 22-state contest on Tuesday. She successfully appealed to backers for more money to pay for the expensive battles ahead, but she lacks the broad base of enthusiastic supporters and volunteers that Mr Obama enjoys.

Mr Obama's promise to bring radical change to Washington and his rejection of lobbyist money has created an enthusiastic political movement, which eagerly responds to his personalised emails asking for cash. There is no danger of Mrs Clinton and her husband Bill going broke, though. They have earned an estimated $40m (£20m) from the former President's speeches, book deals and business partnerships.

But her willingness to sink more private money into her campaign may soon be tested, just as the Republican hopeful Mitt Romney's willingness to bleed money finally had to end with his withdrawal from the White House race yesterday.

Another sign of Mrs Clinton's worries came in a letter that her campaign manager, Patti Solis, sent to Mr Obama's headquarters yesterday, asking for five more televised debates between the Democratic candidates in the next three weeks. Mrs Clinton performs well in debate and gets the added benefit of free airtime before millions of viewers.

"I am sure we can find a suitable place to meet on the campaign trail," Ms Solis wrote. "There is too much at stake and the issues facing the country are too grave to deny voters the opportunity to see the candidates up close."

The Obama campaign curtly rejected a debate for this Sunday. He is heading out instead to meet the public in Louisiana, Nebraska and Maine, who will vote this weekend. There are further primaries in Washington DC on Tuesday and in Hawaii and Wisconsin the following week.

Mrs Clinton is barely competing in those areas and concentrating instead on trying to pull off big victories in Ohio and Texas – large states where she has strong leads in the polls.

But the battle for the Democratic Party nomination is far from over and, despite losing her front-runner tag, Mrs Clinton is still a formidable opponent for Mr Obama.

A note by his campaign managers, inadvertently released to the media yesterday, predicts that the Democratic race will remain deadlocked until the last primary in June. At that stage, Mr Obama's team expects to have 1,806 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which will nominate a candidate for the presidency in August. They believe Mrs Clinton will have 1,789 delegates.

Although he raised $32m in campaign funds in January – a sum he expects to easily match this month – Mr Obama wants voters to view him as the underdog. Aides are worried the fervour of his supporters may falter if he is prematurely crowned as the inevitable Democrat nominee.

"I am always the underdog," Mr Obama declared as he left Chicago to begin rallying support in Louisiana. "Clinton remains the favourite because of the enormous familiarity people have with her."

Despite Mrs Clinton's impressive wins in New York and California, Super Tuesday ended in a draw. She was denied the badly-needed fillip that might have sealed her status as front-runner and opened the floodgates to donor contributions.

Mrs Clinton has seen a surge of online donations since Tuesday, raising $4m from 35,000 new contributors. Nevertheless, some of her staff are now voluntarily working without pay, and there are 16 more primaries and caucuses to fight between now and 22 April in Pennsylvania.

Who's in the money?

BARACK OBAMA

Raised $7.2m in the 48 hours since Super Tuesday, on top of the $32m he raised in January. Raised $100m in 2007.

HILLARY CLINTON

Raised $4m since Super Tuesday, on top of $13m in January. Now falling behind her rival, having matched him dollar for dollar in 2007. Made a personal loan of $5m to campaign last month. Some senior staff are forgoing pay pending the next round of primaries.

JOHN McCAIN

Spent $38m in 2007, after which he finished $4.5m in debt. Figures for his fundraising since then are not available.

MITT ROMNEY

Spent $35m of his own money in 2007, plus another $50m in raised funds, and an unknown amount since then. He leaves the race as the least cost-effective Republican spender.

MIKE HUCKABEE

Raised $6.6m in the last quarter of 2007 and has raised an unknown amount since then.