Obama campaign reports raising $70 million in third quarter

President Obama's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee reported Thursday raising $70 million in the third quarter.

The campaign and the DNC reported that, combined, 606,027 people donated to the campaign and gave over 766,000 donations all but two percent of which were of $250 or less. The campaign reported the average donation to be $56.

The campaign noted that the fundraising numbers came during a summer when Obama had been battling with Republicans in Congress over a debt-ceiling deal and, in the process, had to cancel some of his fundraising events.

"Together, Obama for America and the DNC raised more than $70 million," Obama's reelection campaign manager, Jim Messina, wrote in an email announcing the fundraising numbers. "And it all happened during a summer when the President was focused on doing the job he was elected to do — a summer when we had to cancel a series of fundraising events and ask everyone to dig a little deeper."

Broken down, the campaign reported raising $42.8 million while the DNC raised $27.3 million.

The campaign had set a goal of $55 million for the third quarter for both organizations. That goal and the ending fundraising numbers are both smaller than what the campaign had set for the second quarter. The Obama campaign and the DNC reported raising a combined $86 million last quarter with a goal of raising $60 million. 

—This story was updated at 7:30 a.m.

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