Three families from West Michigan are in the top 15 across the state for election contributions

More campaign finance data is being tallied in Michigan and we now know which wealthy families are contributing more money to influence the upcoming November election.

The Michigan Campaign Finance Network lists the top 15 families in Michigan that have contributed the most to the current election cycle. Topping the list was failed Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Shri Thanedar, who contributed $10.7 million.

Coming in a close second was the DeVos Family, spending $7.1 million in the current election cycle. Interestingly enough, the DeVos Family was not the only member of the West Michigan capitalist class in the top 15 in the state of Michigan. Coming in 10th place is the Kennedy Family, which contributed $863,000, followed by the Jandernoa Family coming in 15th place, with a total of $592,000 in contributions to influence the November election.

In our recent series on the Grand Rapids Power Structure, we looked closely at the DeVos Family in Part II of the series, and in Part III we looked at other members of this elitist group, which included John Kennedy and Michael Jandernoa.

It is no surprise that DeVos, Kennedy and Jandernoa are involved in many of the same organizations in West Michigan that also work hard to influence state and local policy, such as the West Michigan Policy Forum, the Right Place Inc, the Acton Institute, Talent 2025 and Business Leaders for Michigan.