The states that donate the most money to presidential campaigns are among the largest and most populous in the country. Places like California, Texas and New York have enormous populations that make generous lump sum political donations.
Yet when the data is mined to determine which states are the largest donors on a per-household basis, however, the picture changes. On that score, some states with small populations and scant Electoral College votes are among the largest donors when the data is calculated.
Using data from the Federal Election Commission, CNBC.com presents the following list of 10 states that donated the most to presidential campaigns in 2012, by number of households. The number of households per state is taken from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Total statewide political contributions include total private donations of $200 or more. On that basis, if a single donor contributed one dollar 200 times, the aggregate sum made the cut. Meanwhile, a donor who made a single contribution of $199 wasn’t counted.
Read below to see which states donate the most to presidential campaigns, by number of households per state. Or see the entire list at CNBC.
Contribution per household: $7.00 Total political contributions statewide: $9,521,770 Total number of households statewide: 1,358,809 Connecticut is a state with deep ties to the financial sector, due to its proximity to Wall Street, its wealth of insurance companies and its hedge funds. Although it is a traditionally blue state, donations to Republican candidates were much greater than those given to the Democrats. Republican candidates received a total of $6,056,800 from the state, while the Democrats managed to scrape up $3,447,680, only a little more than half the amount donated to the competition. Read more at CNBC
Contribution per household: $7.09 Total political contributions statewide: $17,878,370 Total number of households statewide: 2,520,419 A traditionally liberal state, Massachusetts has been a Democratic Party stronghold for years, despite electing the occasional Republican senator or governor. Of the $17,878,370 in presidential contributions made in the state in 2012, $11,111,345 went to the Democrats and $6,744,857 went to Republican candidates, in particular its former governor, Mitt Romney. Read more at CNBC
Contribution per household: $7.25 Total political contributions statewide: $6,379,445 Total number of households statewide: 880,025 Desert-bound Utah has a relatively low number of households but still made it to the third slot in terms of political contributions, with the majority of donations going to Republican candidates. According to the FEC data, President Obama received $868,565, whereas Republicans hauled in approximately $5.5 million, with Romney received $4.8 million from donors. Read more at CNBC
Contribution per household: $8.46 Total political contributions statewide: $40,198,120 Total number of households statewide: 4,752,857 In Illinois, Chicago, the third-largest city in America, plays a key role in ratcheting up the number of households in this populous state. The breakdown of donations to presidential campaigns in this Midwestern capital skew heavily Democratic, with approximately $32.1 million going to the Obama campaign and approximately $8 million to Republicans. Of the Republican donations, $5.713 million went to Romney. Read more at CNBC
Contribution per household: $32.18 Total political contributions statewide: $8,122,739 Total number of households statewide: 252,388 The district that’s home to the nation’s capital has a minimal population which is maximally involved in politics, so it’s no surprise that it tops off this list. The most allocations by far went to Obama, with a breakdown of about $6.4 million to him and about $1.7 million to Republicans candidates. Of the Republicans, $1.406 million went to Romney, and $93,773 to D.C.’s own Jon Huntsman. Read more at CNBC