States donating the most to Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden

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September 18, 2020
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States donating the most to Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden

On Nov. 3, those Americans who didn’t vote by mail or vote early in person will head to the polls to determine whether Republican Donald Trump deserves another term or if Democratic challenger Joe Biden should take over Trump's job. Both parties have painted the contest as the most important election in American history. The realities of COVID-19 and a level of polarization unprecedented even in the long-divided United States has shaped this election cycle as one of the tensest and unusual in memory. One thing, however, hasn’t changed—the whole thing is awash in money.

Stacker analyzed campaign finance data from the U.S. Federal Election Commission to rank the list according to the numerical difference between individual donations to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Donation amounts cover the period of time between Jan. 1, 2019, and July 31, 2020, and have been rounded for clarity.

Beyond that data, both candidates raised staggering sums in August to add to the already enormous GOP and Democratic campaign war chests. Biden shattered the previous record with a $365 million haul during the last month of summer. Trump also took in a big haul, but news broke in early September that his 10-figure campaign cash advantage dried up.

Adding to the outpouring of cash are several closely watched and hotly contested down-ballot races that could mean the difference between Democrats flipping the Senate to control both houses of Congress no matter who wins the White House.

With so much at stake, donors are digging deep—but the candidate for whom they’re doing that digging often has a lot to do with where they live. Keep reading to learn about which states are home to the donors that are willing to part with the most hard-earned cash in support of their candidate of choice.

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#50. Maine

- Total Maine presidential campaign donations: $1.3 million (#43 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1
- Donations to Donald Trump: $655,000 (48.9% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $685,000 (51.1% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$30,000)

In 2020, Maine will become the first state in America to institute ranked-choice voting, which lets voters select candidates in order of preference. If the voter’s preferred candidate doesn’t earn 50% in the first round, the vote automatically goes to the voter’s next choice. Republicans have fought the move, which proponents say makes elections more democratic and gives people the chance to vote for a third party without that selection doomed to become a throwaway or protest vote.

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#49. Illinois

- Total Illinois presidential campaign donations: $14.2 million (#6 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.12
- Donations to Donald Trump: $7 million (49.7% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $7.1 million (50.3% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$73,000)

Despite being ahead in donations by only a small margin in Illinois, Biden shouldn’t have too hard a time competing there—the state voted for a Democrat in the past seven presidential contests in a row. With 20 electoral votes, it’s the biggest prize in the Midwest.

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#48. Pennsylvania

- Total Pennsylvania presidential campaign donations: $14.6 million (#5 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.14
- Donations to Donald Trump: $7.3 million (49.6% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $7.4 million (50.4% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$118,000)

Electoral contests are closer, more contested, and more closely watched in the perennial battleground that is Pennsylvania than they are in nearly any other state. Trump won the Keystone State in 2016 by fewer than 45,000 votes out of 6 million cast, squeaking out a victory with just a sliver of a percentage point. Oddly, Trump now seems to be taking Pennsylvania for granted or perhaps even writing it off—Biden spent $15 million there on ads in the five weeks preceding Labor Day compared to Trump’s zero.

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#47. Rhode Island

- Total Rhode Island presidential campaign donations: $1.1 million (#47 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.06
- Donations to Donald Trump: $447,000 (39.8% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $677,000 (60.2% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$230,000)

Tiny Rhode Island delivers four electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins over its voters—and that candidate is usually a Democrat. In the past half-century, Rhode Island has voted Republican only in the all-consuming GOP landslides of 1972 and 1984.

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#46. New Hampshire

- Total New Hampshire presidential campaign donations: $2.2 million (#38 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.61
- Donations to Donald Trump: $1.2 million (55.9% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $967,000 (44.1% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$257,000)

New Hampshire hasn’t voted for a Republican since 2000 and before that, not since 1992—but Trump came within a few thousand votes and a single percentage point of changing that trend with a narrow loss in the Granite State in 2016. New Hampshire is highly competitive, but it earns its place in the presidential limelight not during the general election, but at the start of the primaries. As the first true voting state in the primary season—Iowa goes first, but it has caucuses, not elections—it’s a bellwether state that serves as an early proving ground for the hopefuls who flock there during political season.

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#45. Vermont

- Total Vermont presidential campaign donations: $762,000 (#50 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.22
- Donations to Donald Trump: $233,000 (30.6% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $529,000 (69.4% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$296,000)

Hillary Clinton trounced Donald Trump in Vermont in 2016, just as every Democratic presidential contender has done in the New England state since 1992. That year, the state switched loyalties when it voted for Clinton’s husband, Bill Clinton. Before that, Vermont voted Republican in every single election since the GOP’s founding in 1854 except for 1964 when Vermont joined Democrat Lyndon Johnson’s nationwide pounding of Republican Barry Goldwater.

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#44. Hawaii

- Total Hawaii presidential campaign donations: $1.3 million (#42 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.95
- Donations to Donald Trump: $901,000 (67.2% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $440,000 (32.8% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$460,000)

Hawaii flies under the radar in most presidential elections. Not only does it offer only four electoral votes, but there are rarely surprises on the islands—Hawaii has gone blue in every election except the 1972 and 1984 Nixon/Reagan tidal waves. By the end of August, 361 donors had put their money where their mouths and Facebook posts were for Joe Biden compared to 257 reaching for their wallets for Donald Trump.

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#43. Oregon

- Total Oregon presidential campaign donations: $5.7 million (#19 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.35
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.1 million (54.8% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $2.6 million (45.2% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$547,000)

Reliably blue since 1988, Oregon currently delivers seven electoral votes, up from six in 1984. That, however, might soon change. Steady population increases have put Oregon on the path to count for eight marks on the Electoral College tally starting in 2024.

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#42. Wyoming

- Total Wyoming presidential campaign donations: $1.1 million (#46 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.98
- Donations to Donald Trump: $850,000 (74.3% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $293,000 (25.7% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$556,000)

No state in America is more overrepresented in the Electoral College than Wyoming, the country’s least populated state and one that delivers the minimum three electoral votes. As with much of the Mountain West, any Republican with a pulse has a pretty good shot at winning in Wyoming, which has delivered for the GOP in every single election since 1952 with the exception of 1964, when Lyndon Johnson crushed Barry Goldwater.

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#41. Alaska

- Total Alaska presidential campaign donations: $1.2 million (#44 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.70
- Donations to Donald Trump: $918,000 (73.7% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $328,000 (26.3% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$589,000)

Admitted to the Union in 1959, Alaska has voted Republican in every election in its history except for 1964, when the state piled on to Lyndon Johnson’s landslide over Barry Goldwater. The state, however, may require more TLC from the GOP in the future and even in the 2020 race—at least one poll puts Biden and Trump in a dead heat going into this year's election in reliably conservative Alaska.

 

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#40. South Dakota

- Total South Dakota presidential campaign donations: $861,000 (#48 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.97
- Donations to Donald Trump: $743,000 (86.3% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $118,000 (13.7% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$625,000)

South Dakota, with its three electoral votes, entered the Union in 1889 as part of a frenzy of state-adding that took place during that period. It’s been a deep red, reliably Republican state ever since. South Dakota voted Democratic only four times in its history, most recently in 1964 as part of Lyndon Johnson’s wipeout over Barry Goldwater.

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#39. North Dakota

- Total North Dakota presidential campaign donations: $790,000 (#49 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.04
- Donations to Donald Trump: $712,000 (90.1% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $78,000 (9.9% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$633,000)

Like its eponymous neighbor to the south, North Dakota became a state in 1889 during America’s most active period of expansion. Also like South Dakota, it offers only the minimum three electoral votes, which go almost exclusively to Republicans in presidential elections barring the exceptions of once-in-a-generation landslides.

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#38. West Virginia

- Total West Virginia presidential campaign donations: $1.2 million (#45 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.68
- Donations to Donald Trump: $951,000 (78.5% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $260,000 (21.5% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$691,000)

West Virginia—which seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union during the Civil War—has a long history of switching loyalties between parties during presidential contests. It’s been a Republican stronghold throughout the 21st century, but a half-century of population loss is decreasing the state’s value as a political prize worth chasing. It dropped from eight electoral votes in 1960 to five today—and it’s predicted to lose another after the 2020 election.

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#37. Iowa

- Total Iowa presidential campaign donations: $2.5 million (#35 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.78
- Donations to Donald Trump: $1.7 million (67.8% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $793,000 (32.2% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$880,000)

Iowa’s status as a political powerhouse goes far beyond its six electoral votes—its famous caucuses launch the primary campaign season and make Iowa the central focus of the political world. Although it leans Republican, Iowa is a fickle state that no one can take for granted—Trump won it handily in 2016, but Obama won it twice by razor-thin margins after Bush took the state in both 2000 and 2004. Trump’s campaign recently said that Iowa is one of the states it plans to spend big money on between now and Election Day.

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#36. Montana

- Total Montana presidential campaign donations: $1.6 million (#41 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.53
- Donations to Donald Trump: $1.3 million (77.6% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $367,000 (22.4% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$905,000)

Just as it is in Iowa, the Trump campaign is planning to spend heavily in Montana between now and Nov. 3. Like most states in the Mountain West, Montana has been a GOP lock for generations, but it, also like Iowa, is now a battleground for crucial Senate races, which means endless campaign and super PAC dollars are flowing into the state.

 

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#35. Virginia

- Total Virginia presidential campaign donations: $13 million (#8 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.52
- Donations to Donald Trump: $6 million (46.2% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $7 million (53.8% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$985,000)

President Trump is currently dealing with revelations that his campaign blew $800 million of its massive $1.1 billion war chest to little benefit just before the campaign homestretch. Giant ad buys; huge, well-paid staffs; lavish accommodations; and endless splurging on potential donors all contributed to the evaporation of what was once an insurmountable cash advantage, according to the New York Times. The campaign was headquartered at a “cavernous, well-appointed office in the Virginia suburbs,” which has long served as the cash register of the Washington D.C., power structure.

 

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#34. Nebraska

- Total Nebraska presidential campaign donations: $1.6 million (#40 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.85
- Donations to Donald Trump: $1.3 million (80% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $330,000 (20% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$989,000)

Like Maine, Nebraska allocates its electoral votes by Congressional district, making splits possible—Maine split its electoral votes in 2016. CNN interviewed an expert who laid out a scenario in which the race could potentially go to the Democrats if Biden picks up a single electoral vote through a split decision in Nebraska.

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#33. New Mexico

- Total New Mexico presidential campaign donations: $3.2 million (#30 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.51
- Donations to Donald Trump: $2.1 million (66.1% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $1.1 million (33.9% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1 million)

Most polls place Joe Biden in a commanding lead in New Mexico despite the fact that the bulk of the donations there are going to Trump. One small enclave in the state might be the most reliable prognosticator of presidential politics in the entire country. Valencia County, population 77,000, has correctly called the last 17 presidential races straight—the last time the county chose incorrectly was when it bet on Dewey beating Truman in 1948.

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#32. Idaho

- Total Idaho presidential campaign donations: $2.2 million (#36 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.25
- Donations to Donald Trump: $1.6 million (73.2% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $599,000 (26.8% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1 million)

Idaho put on a clinic of how to run a democracy during a crisis when the state saw historic numbers of voters participate in a well-run mail-in primary election during the coronavirus lockdown. Lawmakers there are currently looking to put on a repeat by planning early for a huge uptick in requests for absentee ballots. Officials are readying themselves for as much as 75% mail-in voting since 250,000 requests have already been made.

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#31. Utah

- Total Utah presidential campaign donations: $2.5 million (#34 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.78
- Donations to Donald Trump: $1.8 million (70.8% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $734,000 (29.2% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1 million)

During what friends feared was an extended and public mental breakdown, Kanye West—the unlikely Trump pal and MAGA proponent—announced he was running for president and hoped to siphon off likely Democratic votes from Joe Biden. The spectacle generated scorn, concern, and, as per his longstanding formula, publicity. He also triggered a whole bunch of legal challenges that got him kicked off the ballot in several states, but not everywhere—in August, Kanye West qualified as a candidate for the presidency of the United States in Utah.

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#30. Connecticut

- Total Connecticut presidential campaign donations: $5.6 million (#20 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.57
- Donations to Donald Trump: $2.2 million (39.7% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $3.4 million (60.3% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$1.2 million)

Joe Biden’s current lead over President Trump represents the rule in Connecticut, not the exception this campaign season. Biden maintained a fundraising lead over Trump throughout the six months between Jan. 1 and June 30 in the state, despite intense competition for dollars from Bernie Sanders, who was doing well there with donors for much of that time.

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#29. Arkansas

- Total Arkansas presidential campaign donations: $2.2 million (#37 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.74
- Donations to Donald Trump: $1.7 million (76.8% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $519,000 (23.2% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.2 million)

State native Bill Clinton was the last Democrat to win Arkansas, a feat he pulled off in one of the GOP’s most secure strongholds not once but twice. Like most Southern states, Arkansas voted Democratic in every election from Reconstruction through 1964, when it defected to the Republican Party after Democrat Lyndon Johnson signed landmark Civil Rights legislation. The state gave its electoral votes to segregationist George Wallace in 1968. It swayed Democratic just three times since, always for Southern governors: Clinton’s back-to-back run in the 1990s and Jimmy Carter in 1976.

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#28. Washington

- Total Washington presidential campaign donations: $12.7 million (#9 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.66
- Donations to Donald Trump: $5.7 million (45.2% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $6.9 million (54.8% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$1.2 million)

With 12 electoral votes, Washington State is the biggest prize in the West aside from California and Texas—-and that prize has gone to the Democrats in every presidential election since 1988. Washington was never legitimately in play for the GOP in 2020, but according to a local NBC affiliate, polling shows that Trump is on track to become the first Republican to earn less than 35% of the vote there since William Howard Taft flopped in Washington in 1912.

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#27. Minnesota

- Total Minnesota presidential campaign donations: $5.5 million (#23 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.98
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.4 million (61.3% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $2.1 million (38.7% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.3 million)

Minnesota has voted Democratic in every election since 1972, the longest-running unbroken streak in America today—but many in the party are desperately worried that streak might end in November. Although Biden still has an edge in polling there, the race is tightening and Trump smells blood in the water. His campaign is pouring resources into the state to try to take another giant bite out of the Democratic Midwest after razing much of its so-called “Blue Wall” in 2016.

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#26. California

- Total California presidential campaign donations: $68.4 million (#1 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.73
- Donations to Donald Trump: $33.5 million (49% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $34.9 million (51% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$1.4 million)

Long a Republican fortress and home base of the Ronald Reagan movement in the 1980s, the GOP is essentially nonexistent in California today, a dynamic that represents one of the most significant shifts in American political history. The most populous state in the country, California’s 55 electoral votes are the biggest political prize in the country by far—and they’re all but guaranteed to go to Joe Biden. Today, fewer than one California voter in four is a registered Republican, the Democrats control three-quarters of the State Legislature and all but seven of its 53 Congressional districts, and no Republican holds a single statewide office.

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#25. Delaware

- Total Delaware presidential campaign donations: $2.8 million (#32 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $2.90
- Donations to Donald Trump: $667,000 (23.6% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $2.2 million (76.4% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$1.5 million)

Solidly Republican for much of the 20th century, Delaware was long synonymous with the DuPont family, its company, and its status as an influential GOP stalwart. Now it’s reliably Democratic, voting blue in every election since it helped make George H.W. Bush a one-term president in 1992. The name it’s most synonymous with for the past several decades has not been DuPont, but Biden.

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#24. New Jersey

- Total New Jersey presidential campaign donations: $11 million (#11 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.24
- Donations to Donald Trump: $6.3 million (56.9% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $4.7 million (43.1% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.5 million)

While the Garden State has a long tradition of electing Republican and Democratic governors, New Jersey is deep blue in terms of presidential politics and has been since 1992. The most populous state in the Union, New Jersey delivers a hefty 14 electoral votes to its party of choice, which for generations before the Bill Clinton era was the GOP.

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#23. Wisconsin

- Total Wisconsin presidential campaign donations: $4.2 million (#28 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.73
- Donations to Donald Trump: $2.9 million (68.5% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $1.3 million (31.5% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.6 million)

Wisconsin ranks up there with Pennsylvania and Florida as one of the top must-win battleground states in 2020—both candidates are pouring time, energy, effort, and money into Wisconsin down the homestretch. In one of the most critical and crushing Blue Wall defeats, Trump narrowly won the state and its 10 electoral votes in 2016. It was the first time Wisconsin went red since voting for Ronald Reagan in 1984.

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#22. Kansas

- Total Kansas presidential campaign donations: $2.6 million (#33 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.89
- Donations to Donald Trump: $2.1 million (80.4% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $511,000 (19.6% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.6 million)

One of the deepest red states in America, Kansas has voted Republican every year since the Johnson/Goldwater Democratic landslide of 1964. While the state still leans Republican in 2020, GOP super PACs have been forced to spend millions of dollars in a state they shouldn’t have had to defend at all. Much of the reason has not to do with Trump’s vulnerability, but with a critical and closely watched down-ballot race—the Democrats have a real chance to flip a critical Senate seat there.

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#21. Mississippi

- Total Mississippi presidential campaign donations: $2.2 million (#39 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.73
- Donations to Donald Trump: $1.9 million (86.7% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $290,000 (13.3% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.6 million)

Mississippi joined the rest of the Deep South in voting Democratic from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights era, when segregationist Democrats switched loyalties and formed the nucleus of the modern GOP base. Also like many of its Deep South neighbors, Mississippi gave its electoral votes to third-party segregation-platform candidates Strom Thurmond and George Wallace. Aside from supporting Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976, Mississippi has been a political dead zone for Democrats in the modern era—although Kanye West managed to qualify for a spot on the 2020 ballot as an Independent.

 

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#20. Colorado

- Total Colorado presidential campaign donations: $9.5 million (#17 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.65
- Donations to Donald Trump: $5.6 million (58.7% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $3.9 million (41.3% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.7 million)

One of the only true battleground states in the West, Colorado went blue the past three elections after siding with the GOP the three before that. The presidential race is statistically tied there moving into the homestretch, but Biden and Trump aren’t the only reasons that Colorado is one of the most closely watched and important states in the 2020 election. The Democrats hope to flip the Senate, and Colorado is home to one of the upper chamber’s most vulnerable Republican incumbents.

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#19. Kentucky

- Total Kentucky presidential campaign donations: $3.1 million (#31 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.70
- Donations to Donald Trump: $2.4 million (76.9% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $720,000 (23.1% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.7 million)

Although it’s been loyal to the GOP since the 1950s, Kentucky has been known to go with the Democrats when they run a Southern governor like Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. Trump creamed Hillary Clinton there in 2016 but the presidential race isn’t why all eyes are on—and lots of cash is flowing into—Kentucky. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a Kentucky political institution, but he’s facing a legitimate, albeit still improbable challenge from Democrat Amy McGrath, who hopes to take the seat he’s held since 1986.

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#18. South Carolina

- Total South Carolina presidential campaign donations: $5.4 million (#24 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.05
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.6 million (67.1% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $1.8 million (32.9% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$1.9 million)

Like Kentucky, South Carolina is awash in political money as an entrenched and familiar Republican faces a serious challenge from a Democratic upstart. The race is tightening between underdog Jaime Harrison and Lindsey Graham, a powerful GOP senator in a reliable Republican stronghold. Harrison proved to be both a skilled politician and a powerhouse fundraiser just as the GOP’s control of the Senate was becoming truly vulnerable.

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#17. Missouri

- Total Missouri presidential campaign donations: $5.5 million (#22 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.90
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.9 million (70.4% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $1.6 million (29.6% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$2.3 million)

Missouri is a fairly reliable Republican state, although Barack Obama lost by only the slimmest of margins in 2008 when Missouri voted against the eventual winner for only the second time since 1904. In 2020, however, Missouri is still very much in play. In fact, it’s the only swing state where President Trump currently holds the advantage over Biden in the polls.

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#16. Nevada

- Total Nevada presidential campaign donations: $5.6 million (#21 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.81
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.9 million (70.5% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $1.6 million (29.5% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$2.3 million)

A steady and significant 40-year population increase has bumped Nevada up from four electoral votes in 1980 to six today. That same population boom has turned Nevada from reliably Republican to one of the West’s only true swing states. Trump lost Nevada by 2.5 percentage points in 2016 and, despite the lopsided donations to the president, Biden currently leads in the polls there by double that percentage.

 

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#15. Alabama

- Total Alabama presidential campaign donations: $4.2 million (#27 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.87
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.5 million (81.3% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $792,000 (18.7% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$2.7 million)

By early July, it was plainly obvious that Joe Biden would not be able to compete in Alabama in terms of fundraising dollars—and why should he expect to in a Deep South state that has consistently delivered 20-plus point wins to the GOP for decades? From the start of 2019 through midsummer 2020, Biden managed to inspire just 7,137 donors to send him a combined $669,471.02 compared to 43,607 Alabama contributors who tallied $2,554,586.42 for the president.

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#14. Indiana

- Total Indiana presidential campaign donations: $5.1 million (#25 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.76
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.9 million (77.1% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $1.2 million (22.9% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$2.8 million)

Indiana has voted Democratic only twice since helping to re-elect Franklin Roosevelt in 1936—most recently when it gave the nod to Barack Obama in 2008. The reliably red state has become a GOP cash cow thanks in large part to Indiana native, former governor, and current Vice President Mike Pence, who is able to wrangle well-heeled donors to top-dollar fundraisers across the state both for the president and down-ballot GOP candidates.

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#13. Oklahoma

- Total Oklahoma presidential campaign donations: $4.1 million (#29 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.04
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.5 million (84.6% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $632,000 (15.4% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$2.8 million)

Donald Trump in June rolled the dice by hosting the first live campaign event since March. He did it in Tulsa—and lost big on the gamble. An event that was supposed to signal the return of Trump’s signature rallies was a highly publicized flop that hampered his campaign, served as a distraction in the press, and came off as tone-deaf during the height of the coronavirus crisis. On top of everything else, it cost $2.2 million to put together.

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#12. Louisiana

- Total Louisiana presidential campaign donations: $4.8 million (#26 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.04
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.8 million (79.5% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $985,000 (20.5% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$2.8 million)

A few Democrats, most notably Joe Biden’s vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, have managed to raise fairly sizable contributions in Louisiana, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the GOP’s haul. So far this year, Louisiana voters have given more money to President Trump than to all Democratic opponents combined.

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#11. North Carolina

- Total North Carolina presidential campaign donations: $10.9 million (#12 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.04
- Donations to Donald Trump: $7 million (64.5% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $3.9 million (35.5% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$3.2 million)

North Carolina is shaping up to be one of the tightest toss-up states in the country, and the state’s voters have generated nearly $11 million in campaign donations. While Democrats are still clamoring for Joe Biden to show his face there, the Trump campaign has already gone all in on the state—and the effort seems to be paying off. By mid-July, the Trump campaign and the RNC were claiming to have made 3 million voter contacts in North Carolina.

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#10. Tennessee

- Total Tennessee presidential campaign donations: $7.1 million (#18 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.03
- Donations to Donald Trump: $5.1 million (72.4% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $1.9 million (27.6% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$3.2 million)

Trump’s fundraising dominance in Tennessee is not surprising considering the state voted Republican in every single presidential election of the 21st century—but Trump is popular even by GOP standards in Tennessee. Trump took more than 60% of the vote there in 2016, more than all four other GOP candidates who won the state since 2000.

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#9. Maryland

- Total Maryland presidential campaign donations: $10.8 million (#13 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.78
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.7 million (34% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $7.1 million (66% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$3.4 million)

By September 2019, Joe Biden had already emerged as the top fundraiser in Maryland despite the fact that Bernie Sanders had more donors. By April 2020, Maryland voters had established themselves as among the Democratic challenger’s most committed contributors. Marylanders gave more to Biden in the first three months of this year than they did in three combined full quarters of 2019.

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#8. Michigan

- Total Michigan presidential campaign donations: $10.1 million (#16 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.01
- Donations to Donald Trump: $6.9 million (67.8% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $3.3 million (32.2% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$3.6 million)

Solidly Democratic since 1992, Michigan was part of the Blue Wall that was supposed to insulate Hillary Clinton in 2016. Instead, it fell to Trump in the single closest race of the entire election—Trump took Michigan by just 0.3%, or 13,080 votes. Democrats are positioned to prevent a repeat, but by the second week of September, Joe Biden’s lead in the state was narrowing.

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#7. Ohio

- Total Ohio presidential campaign donations: $10.5 million (#14 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $0.90
- Donations to Donald Trump: $7.6 million (72.8% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $2.9 million (27.2% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$4.8 million)

Although it’s been shedding electoral votes since the state’s population began declining in the 1960s, Ohio still tallies a hefty 18 for the winner—and Ohio is promised to no one but coveted by all. Races there are close and the state bounces back and forth between the two parties in nearly the exact same rhythm as the larger electorate. Ohio has backed the winning candidate in every single race since 1944 except once—the state voted for Nixon over Kennedy in 1960.

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#6. Massachusetts

- Total Massachusetts presidential campaign donations: $13.1 million (#7 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.90
- Donations to Donald Trump: $3.8 million (29.2% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $9.3 million (70.8% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$5.4 million)

Although it’s down to 11 electoral votes from 18 in the 1920s, Massachusetts is still a solid take in the Northeast—and Democrats are almost always the ones doing the taking there on Election Day. Massachusetts has voted Republican only four times since 1928, two each for Eisenhower and Reagan in the 1950s and ’80s. In 1972, it was the only state in the Union to choose Democrat George McGovern over Richard Nixon.

 

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#5. Arizona

- Total Arizona presidential campaign donations: $10.1 million (#15 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.39
- Donations to Donald Trump: $7.8 million (77.3% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $2.3 million (22.7% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$5.5 million)

Arizona is one of the most important states of the 2020 race for two reasons. First, it’s one of the only swing states in the West in terms of the general election, and if the Democrats succeed in flipping it, they’ll have conquered one of the most reliably red states in the country. Second, Democrats have a real chance of also flipping a GOP Senate seat there on their now very plausible pursuit of both houses of Congress.

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#4. Georgia

- Total Georgia presidential campaign donations: $11.9 million (#10 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.12
- Donations to Donald Trump: $8.8 million (73.7% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $3.1 million (26.3% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$5.7 million)

Like Arizona, the Democrats would score a huge victory by flipping Georgia, a reliably red state that followed its Deep South counterparts in veering to the Democrats only for Southern governor Bill Clinton and Georgia’s own Jimmy Carter. A blue Georgia is now a very real possibility in what has become a tight toss-up state, but the system of voting itself earned Georgia unwelcomed headlines across the country during the primaries. Right now, the state is recruiting an army of poll workers in an effort to avoid repeating the long lines, confusion, and anger that defined the state’s most recent large-scale exercise in democracy.

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#3. New York

- Total New York presidential campaign donations: $31.5 million (#4 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.62
- Donations to Donald Trump: $11.5 million (36.6% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $20 million (63.4% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Joe Biden (+$8.4 million)

As early as January, before most Americans had heard the word “coronavirus,” many of New York’s big money elites had already coalesced behind Joe Biden. His grip on the state continues despite taking on a president who is a New York native who spent his entire life and career as a one-man Empire State institution.

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#2. Florida

- Total Florida presidential campaign donations: $39.3 million (#2 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.83
- Donations to Donald Trump: $28.3 million (72% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $11 million (28% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$17.3 million)

Florida was long just another Southern state that followed the familiar voting patterns of its regional neighbors into the 20th century, but all that changed starting in the 1950s. A massive and sustained 60-year population boom boosted Florida’s presidential clout from eight electoral votes after World War II to 29 today, making it one of the most politically consequential states in the country. A diverse and divided state, presidential elections in modern Florida are nail-biters that often could go either way and frequently decide the entire race—Florida remains the battleground state of all battleground states in America.

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#1. Texas

- Total Texas presidential campaign donations: $38.3 million (#3 highest among states)
- Presidential campaign donations per capita: $1.32
- Donations to Donald Trump: $29.7 million (77.4% of all donations)
- Donations to Joe Biden: $8.6 million (22.6% of all donations)
- State fundraising advantage: Donald Trump (+$21 million)

Arizona would be nice and Georgia would be even nicer, but Texas has always been the Democrats’ white whale in terms of states it dreams of one day turning blue. Massive population growth, internal population shifts, and an undeniable and unstoppable change in demographics is positioning reliably red Texas as the ultimate battleground in the coming decade. If Democrats were to take the state, they would not only pick up 38 electoral votes—set to become 41 in 2024—but they would lock down the trifecta of the three most vote-rich states in America: California, Texas, and New York, which currently combine for a whopping 122 electoral votes.

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