Romney Sets Sights on the General Election

On May 8, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won 3 more primary contests in Indiana, North Carolina, and West Virginia. While Romney still needs 178 delegates to seal the nomination, at this point his nomination is all but guaranteed. The only other Republican candidate left in the race is Ron Paul, who has 104 delegates. The Republicans have 11 presidential primaries remaining, which are scheduled for this May and June.

The Presumed Nominee?

As the Republican Convention nears, many of Romney’s former Republican challengers have been throwing their support behind Romney. Just this week, in an email to his supporters, former candidate Rick Santorum endorsed Romney. Last week, Michele Bachmann tweeted her endorsement for Romney.

With the nomination all but sealed, Romney has been setting his sights increasingly on the general election. His energy, messages, and money are now focused on his goal of defeating President Obama in the general election and becoming the next president of the United States.

Raising Money for the Campaign’s Next Phase

Like President Obama, Romney is taking advantage of the Internet and social media tools to connect with voters and spread his message. You can access most of these social media sites from Romney’s official campaign Web site. The Romney campaign is using Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and other media tools as part of its strategy. Romney is using these tools in addition to more traditional avenues to raise campaign funds.

According to The New York Times, by the end of March, Mitt Romney had raised over $87 million for his campaign and had approximately $10 million in cash on hand. This is less than half of the nearly $197 million President Obama raised in the same period. Obama has over $84 million in cash left to spend.

However, these funds do not include the money raised by Super PACs. The Super PAC Restore Our Future, which was created by former aides to Mitt Romney, has spent over $44 million dollars. While much of this was spent on ads attacking Romney’s Republic rivals, now that the primary season is coming to a close, Restore Our Future’s ads are starting to attack Obama and promote Romney’s general election campaign. Super PACs formed by former Obama aides have spent less money, but this could change now that Obama has officially kicked off his campaign. So far, Obama has the advantage in overall donations, but Romney has the advantage in Super PAC support.