Hillary Clinton raised significantly more money from Maine residents last year than her Democratic rival and each of the Republican contenders for the White House, according to an analysis of campaign contributions.
Clinton’s campaign reported $233,198 in contributions from Maine residents through Dec. 31 – the last date for which data is available – compared to $133,560 for Republican Jeb Bush and $128,628 for Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The next biggest recipients – all Republicans – were businesswoman Carly Fiorina with $67,566 in contributions, neurosurgeon Ben Carson with $50,984, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at $24,627, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at $20,683 and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at $14,642.
All told, Mainers had contributed just over $712,000 to 19 candidates running for president through Dec. 31, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. By comparison, Mainers had donated more than $816,000 to the presidential contenders by this point in the 2012 campaign, including more than $580,000 to President Obama’s re-election campaign.
Mainers appear more enthusiastic about giving to Republican candidates this presidential campaign than during the 2012 race, although the field is larger this year. Maine residents had contributed roughly $340,000 to Republicans so far this election cycle as of Dec. 31 compared to about $230,000 in 2012, an analysis of the FEC data shows.
Maine Republican Party executive director Jason Savage attributed the higher contributions to a number of factors that include the large, diverse field of Republican candidates, Mainers’ growing unease with the direction of the country under Obama, and promises from both Clinton and Sanders to take those policies even further.
“There really is something happening in our party,” Savage said, citing a recent Gallup poll that showed Maine shifting from a Democratic-leaning to a “purple” state. “Maine is trending Republican and people are waking up to the damage that $19 trillion in debt is going to do to our kids’ future.”
Federal election law requires campaigns to identify the sources of all donations of $50 or more, and sets a maximum donation of $2,700 per person per race. The donations analyzed for this report were made to the candidates’ campaigns and don’t include contributions that Mainers may have made to political parties or political action committees involved in the presidential campaign.
In the Republican field, Bush has raked in a hefty chunk of his contributions – $33,225 of his $133,560 – from residents of Kennebunk and Kennebunkport near his family’s coastal estate. However, Falmouth residents contributed the most to the former Florida governor, $34,600. Bush’s list of top contributors includes the husband-wife team of former Gov. John “Jock” McKernan and former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, both Republicans.
Clinton, meanwhile, had received the most donations from Portland residents, who accounted for $49,132 of her $233,198 total contributions. Donations from residents of Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth, Cumberland and Brunswick also exceeded five figures. Among the better-known contributors to the former secretary of state and first lady were U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-District 1, who is serving on Clinton’s Maine leadership campaign team, and Karen Mills, former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Sanders has received roughly 10 percent of his $128,628 in contributions from Portland residents, followed by residents of South Portland, Brunswick, Scarborough and Freeport. But while Clinton and Bush had received the maximum donation of $2,700 from dozens of individuals, Sanders received that amount from only one donor, reflecting his campaign’s focus on smaller-dollar donors.
In 2012, Mainers contributed just over $4.1 million to all presidential candidates throughout the election cycle.
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