Washington – Connecticut donations to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign surged in the first three months of this year, thanks in part to a January fundraiser held in the state by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has also had a recent surge in Connecticut donations, but his campaign has raised a lot less money in the state than the Democratic White House candidates.
So far, Connecticut residents have invested at least $6.7 million in the presidential race, with Democratic candidates holding only a small advantage, but that’s because several early GOP candidates who raised money in Connecticut dropped out of the race.
The data may not reflect all of the smaller donations to campaigns because the Federal Elections Commission does not break those out by state, but they are aggregated in national fundraising figures.
According to the FEC, the fundraising front runner by far has been Clinton, who has raised nearly $2.8 million in Connecticut, nearly $1.2 million of that in the last three months. Her campaign is battling Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Connecticut before Tuesday’s April 26 primary, and she made an appearance in Hartford on Thursday.
Sanders is Connecticut’s second-biggest fund-raiser at $962,000.
Clinton’s campaign stronghold has been Fairfield County, which will be the site of another Clinton fundraiser on Sunday. She has raised $1.2 million there, nearly half of her Connecticut total. Sanders has raised about $222,000 in Fairfield County, but also has had strong support in the New Haven and Hartford areas.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush raised more than $1 million in Connecticut and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio raised more than $570,000 before dropping out of the race. Other former Republican candidates who raised money in the state include Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
The remaining GOP contenders – real estate mogul Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Kasich – have not raised nearly as much.
Of those three, Cruz has raised $278,000, Kasich has raised about $250,000, and Trump, whom polls show as the front-runner in Tuesday’s primary, has raised only about $27,000. Unlike the other candidates, however, Trump is largely self-financing his campaign. He lent his campaign another $11.5 million last month — bringing his total loans to more than $36 million.
Kasich has raised most of his money in Fairfield County. Residents of that area have also been generous to Cruz, but the hometowns of his donors were more widespread.
Trump had too few donations to make a fair analysis.
Nationally, Sanders is running neck-and-neck with Clinton as far as fundraising.
His campaign reported raising $182 million, and Clinton’s campaign reported raising about $180 million. The Sanders campaign said it had a $46 million rush in donations in March.
“Bernie’s grassroots campaign has now out-raised Secretary Hillary Clinton for three months straight,” said Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver.
But Clinton ended the quarter with more cash on hand than any other presidential candidate, about $29 million. Sanders had $17 million, and the GOP candidates burned through most of their money.