The Philadelphia campaign to elect Hillary Clinton can probably start relaxing. Last week, the Federal Election Commission released quarterly campaign finance data for 15 presidential candidates — not including Donald Trump, sorry — and Clinton is dominating. Billy Penn totaled the campaign contributions by people or groups from Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Here’s what it looks like for Clinton, a lack of Philly love for Bernie Sanders and how Philadelphia’s support differs from Pennsylvania’s.
Hillary and then everyone else
Hillary Clinton has received nearly $270,000 in donations from people or groups residing in Philadelphia right now. Combined, the other 14 candidates for which data is available (Donald Trump data has not been released) total about $40,000.
- Hillary Clinton $269,926.57
- Rand Paul $8,374.17
- Martin O’Malley $5,900
- Jeb Bush $5,400
- Carly Fiorina $5,250
- Rick Santorum $3,000
- Marco Rubio $2,994
- Mike Huckabee $2,700
- Bernie Sanders $1,336.67
- Ted Cruz $721
- Ben Carson $400
- Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, Rick Perry $0
Philly seems to care little for non-Hillary Dems
Bernie Sanders has raised just more than $15 million for his campaign and seen his stock rise in Iowa and New Hampshire polls. In Philadelphia, he’s barely cracked the $1,000 mark. Lack of traction for Sanders here shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. He’s cultivated a following among white liberals and little else. Philadelphia, with its majority black population, is not the type of place where Sanders could likely gain a substantial following.
Philly supports different conservatives than Pennsylvania
Here’s how candidate donations rank in Philadelphia versus the entire state of Pennsylvania.


Like Philadelphia, all of Pennsylvania is digging Clinton. Otherwise, our city doesn’t have too much in common with the rest of PA.
Pennsylvania is always more conservative than Philadelphia, but the conservatives it has been bankrolling so far aren’t the same conservatives supported the most by Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s top-supported conservatives are Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina. For Pennsylvania, they are Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Rick Santorum.
💌 Love Philly? Sign up for the free Billy Penn newsletter and stay in the know
How important has Philadelphia been to each candidate?
Clinton wins this category once again. The amount Philadelphians have given Clinton represents about .5 percent of her total donations, a greater share than for any of the other candidates. Here’s how that list looks:
- Clinton: .5 percent
- Santorum: .4 percent
- Fiorina: .3 percent
- O’Malley: .3 percent
- Huckabee: .1 percent
- Paul: .1 percent
- Bush: .04 percent
- Rubio: .03 percent
- Sanders: .008 percent
- Cruz: .007 percent
- Carson: .004 percent
- Perry, Pataki, Graham, Jindal: 0 percent