Houston ? Since President Bush launched his bid for re-election on May 16, his campaign has raised at least $41.4 million, including $7 million on a two-day Texas swing that wound up with a Saturday evening reception.

That’s more than $635,000 a day and counting since the effort started.

He wrapped up the latest chapter in Houston where more than 700 people paid $2,000 apiece to hear him speak. The crowd, many of whom helped round up additional contributions for the Bush campaign, included Texas Gov. Rick Perry and House Majority Leader Tom Delay.

Bush talked about themes he discusses at all his fund-raisers. He recalls the routing of the Taliban in Afghanistan, talks tough against terrorists and praises the U.S. military and its mission in Iraq.

Corporate scandals, the Sept. 11 attacks and weak economic growth have challenged his administration, Bush said. But he cited the deep tax cuts and economic stimulus legislation he signed into law as the key to future good times for the nation.

“With all these actions we are laying the foundation for greater prosperity and more jobs across America so that every single person in this country can realize the American dream,” Bush said Saturday.

Donors applauded when Bush talked about fighting terrorists who threaten peace around the world.

“The enemies of freedom are not idle and neither are we,” Bush said. “This country will not rest, we will not tire and we will not stop until this danger to civilization is removed.”

The Texas fund-raising stops, in Dallas and Houston, resulted in the president’s biggest haul on any trip to a state this year.

President Bush speaks at a campaign fund-raising dinner in Houston, Texas. Bush's trip Saturday netted him million more for his campaign coffers.

“In those first six weeks, we’ve raised 50 percent of what we raised in 18 months in the year 2000,” Fred Meyer, chairman of the campaign’s Texas finance effort, told donors before Bush’s address. But he urged them to keep working for the president’s re-election.

The Bush administration has been getting intense criticism in the past week for using questionable evidence about Iraq’s attempts to buy uranium in Africa. And U.S. troops have been dying at the rate of about one a day in Iraq.