James Comey, Caroline Kennedy, Felicity Huffman: Who is donating to the 2020 presidential candidates?

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

With the Iowa caucuses less than a year away, the stars are aligning for some candidates as celebrities from movies, music, social media and politics are beginning to open up their wallets for their favorite candidates.

Front-runners in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination are seeing the likes of actress Susan Sarandon and singer Jackson Browne writing checks, while President Donald Trump, who reported $30 million in contributions, is seeing a large part of his campaign money coming from business owners.

Earlier this month, the slate of 2020 candidates were required to file their first-quarter campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission. The reports detail contributions they have received and what those contributions have been spent on.

Candidates have received contributions from organizations and political action groups, but some of the more interesting donors are the ones we have seen on the movie screen, heard on the radio or watched in the seats of power in Silicon Valley or Washington, D.C.

Here's a look at some of the more recognizable names who have already contributed to candidates hoping to sit in the Oval Office in 2021.

Republicans

Donald Trump
Total contributions: $30,304,180
Contributions raised from individual donors: $7,325,369
Notable donors: Ukrainian model and pageant queen Oleksandra Nikolayenko-Ruffin, whose husband, Phil Ruffin, owns Treasure Island Resort & Casino; Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts; Ross Perot Jr.; Robert Murray, of Murray Energy Corporation
 
Democrats

Bernie Sanders
Total contributions: $20,688,027
Contributions raised from individual donors: $18,186,300.21
Notable donors: Singer Norah Jones, Jackson Browne, Brandi Carlile and former Vampire Weekend member Rostam Batmanglij; actors Danny DeVito, Ted Levine, Susan Sarandon and Thomas Middleditch
 
Elizabeth Warren
Total contributions: $16,482,752
Contributions raised from individual donors: $6,016,435.38
Notable donors: Singer Jackson Browne; Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and his husband, Sean Eldridge
 
Kamala Harris 
Total contributions: $13,243,551
Contributions raised from individual donors: $2,997,884
Notable donors: Actors Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Darren Aronofsky, Elizabeth Banks, Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, Wanda Sykes, Busy Phillips and Lily Tomlin; filmmaker J.J. Abrams; singer Jenny Lewis; record producer Quincy Jones
 
Kirsten Gillibrand 
Total contributions: $12,601,580
Contributions raised from individual donors: $2,997,884
Notable donors: Actresses Reese Witherspoon and Connie Britton; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg.

John Delaney
Total contributions: $12,144,070
Contributions raised from individual donors: $404,301
Notable donors: Delaney loaned himself the majority of his campaign contributions, $11.7 million, in first-quarter 2019.
 
Beto O'Rourke
Total contributions: $9,373,261
Contributions raised from individual donors: $9,369,861
Notable donors: Singers Willie Nelson, the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh, Dave Matthews Band's Boyd Tinsley; filmmaker Richard Linklater; Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour; comedian Bob Odenkirk; "Saturday Night Live's" Cecily Strong; "Mad Men" star John Slattery

Amy Klobuchar 
Total contributions: $8,832,322
Contributions raised from individual donors: $5,232,376
Notable donors: Former FBI head James Comey and his wife, Patrice, each donated to Klobuchar; Dana Walden, head of Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment; Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf; Zynga founder Mark Pincus
 
Cory Booker 
Total contributions: $7,923,204
Contributions raised from individual donors: $5,044,390
Notable donors: Singers Jon Bon Jovi and Joel Madden; actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Bacon, Orlando Bloom and Rosario Dawson; New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy; former Google chairman Eric Schmidt; PayPal founder Dan Schulman
 
Pete Buttigieg 
Total contributions: $7,091,224
Contributions raised from individual donors: $7,086,155
Notable donors: Actors Jane Lynch, Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Whitford; James Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch); President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice; singers Mandy Moore and her husband, Taylor Goldsmith, of the band Dawes; novelist Jeffrey Eugenides; sportscaster Rich Eisen; Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy
 
Tulsi Gabbard 
Total contributions: $4,495,770
Contributions raised from individual donors: $1,949,074.92
Notable donors: Actress Susan Sarandon
 
Jay Inslee
Total contributions: $2,256,655
Contributions raised from individual donors: $2,255,455
Notable donors: Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes; Connie Ballmer, whose husband is Los Angeles Clippers owners Steve Ballmer

John Hickenlooper 
Total contributions: $2,020,683
Contributions raised from individual donors: $2,014,099
Notable donors: Actor Scott Eastwood; John Hall, founder of Goose Island Beer Company; Universal Music Group CEO Michael Dungan; Joshua Bekenstein, Bain Capital co-chairman
 
Andrew Yang
Total contributions: $1,778,936
Contributions raised from individual donors: $1,776,875.12 
Notable donors: Actor Nicholas Cage; singer Rivers Cuomo; Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
 
Marianne Williamson 
Total contributions: $1,546,975
Contributions raised from individual donors: $1,544,697
Notable donors: Movie producer Stephen Bing; Paulette Cole, owner of ABC Carpet and Home
 
Julian Castro 
Total contributions: $1,100,641
Contributions raised from individual donors: $1,092,941.02
Notable donors: Movie producer Christopher Meledandri; Latina founding editor Christy Haubegger
 
Wayne Messam 
Total contributions: $43,532
Contributions raised from individual donors: $43,532
Notable donors: Former NFL offensive tackle John St. Clair 

Note: Democratic candidates Joe Biden, Seth Moulton, Eric Swalwell and Tim Ryan and Republican candidate William Weld came into the race after the date required to report campaign contributions.

  Democratic presidential candidate South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg during a campaign stop at a dairy company in Londonderry, N.H., Friday, April 19, 2019.

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