Hometown roots paid off for presidential candidates with ties to the Philadelphia region in the first half of the year.
Former Vice President Joe Biden - who lives in Delaware, was born in Scranton and operates his national campaign headquarters from Philadelphia - pulled in more than $1 million from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey since launching his campaign in April. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker raised $3 million from the three states combined (most of it from New Jersey), according to campaign finance filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Biden raised about $938,000 in Pennsylvania for the period, more than the other top three Democratic fundraisers in the Keystone State – Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) - combined. Biden also brought in $297,000 from Delaware, a state he represented in the Senate for more than three decades, and collected $246,000 from donors in New Jersey. Biden announced his campaign in April, so his fundraising covers a shorter period than most of his competitors.
Booker raised $2.82 million from donors in his home state of New Jersey, making it his top state for fundraising. That total from New Jersey also bests the per candidate fundraising hauls from the national’s largest state, California, for Biden, Warren and Sanders – each of whom had California as their number one source for campaign money. (California’s Sen. Kamala Harris far outraised them in her home state, bringing in $7.55 million from California. Buttigieg raised $4.32 million from there.)
President Donald Trump, a Republican who won Pennsylvania in the 2016 general election, raised $359,000 in Pennsylvania in the first half of the year, less than Biden but more than any of the other Democratic candidates.
Among Democrats, Buttigieg raised the most in Pennsylvania behind Biden. The Indiana mayor brought in $253,000 in Pennsylvania, more than Warren ($237,000), Sanders ($215,000) and Booker ($213,000).
