Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's breakout performance during Wednesday's GOP presidential debate paid off big with his campaign raising $1.1 million online in the 22 hours after the debate.
"That is a real demonstration, I think, of the hunger Republican primary voters have for someone who will actually stand and fight for them," he said, reported The Washington Post.
Cruz said that in just four hours Wednesday night - from the beginning of the debate at 8 p.m. until midnight - he took in $722,000 online with the help of his super PAC Make DC Listen.
The senator appeared on Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier" later on Thursday to reveal that donations had surpassed $1.1 million just 22 hours after the debate.
One of the most memorable lines of the debate came when Cruz ripped into the CNBC moderators for asking divisive questions designed to pit the candidates against each other.
"The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media," he said during the debate, reported The Washington Times.
"This is not a cage match," Cruz continued. "And you look at the questions: Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?"
"How about talking about the substantive issues people care about?" he added.
Those comments helped the Tea Party favorite capture a majority of all the social media and traditional media mentions of the night. He accounted for 20 percent of the chatter during the debate, compared to front-runner Donald Trump only commanding 15 percent, according to Zingal Labs.
