West Michigan donors make up half of the top 25 contributors to the Michigan Republican House and Senate Committees

All week long I have been providing documentation on campaign finances around candidates for political races in Grand Rapids and Kent County, along with the group behind the Hotel Tax ballot initiative, the Destination Kent Committee. 

I will be posting campaign finance data for State House races that are in West Michigan as well, but before I add that piece, I wanted to share some very interesting data as it relates to West Michigan and the GOP campaign contributions for the entire state.

There are two GOP groups that are consistently the largest recipients of campaign contributions during elections cycles, the House Republican Campaign Committee and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee. 

According to data from the site https://www.transparencyusa.org/, the top 25 contributors to both of the Republican groups mentioned above are contributors from West Michigan during election cycles from 2017 to the present. What follows is the data for the top 25 contributors to the House Republican Campaign Committee over the last 8 years. I will highlight the people/orgs that are from West Michigan.

• Maria & Doug DeVos – $691,300.00
• Wentworth Majority Fund – $603,530.82
• Matt Hall PAC – $590,100.00
• Daniel DeVos – $345,650.00
• John Kennedy III – $345,650.00
• Nancy Kennedy – $345,650.00
• Richard DeVos Jr. – $345,650.00
• Suzanne Cheryl DeVos – $345,650.00
• J. C. Huizenga – $335,650.00 
• Mary Whiteford – $327,620.00
• Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers State PAC – $309,200.00
• Republican State Leadership Committee – $305,650.00
• Ron Weiser – $303,675.00
• Matthew Hayworth – $293,875.00
• Michigan Realtors SuperPAC – $287,225.00 
• Richard Hayworth – $274,875.00
• Pamella DeVos – $265,650.00
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan PAC – $260,475.00
• Michigan Republican Party – $250,850.00
• Matthew Moroun – $247,825.00
• DTE Energy PAC – $246,975.00
• Meijer PAC – $236,975.00
• Michael Jandernoa – $236,875.00
• Luke Meerman – $233,500.00
• James Nicholson – $228,950.00 

You can see that there are 14 of the top 25 contributors to the House Republican Campaign Committee that are from West Michigan. 

Now let’s look at the data for the top 25 contributors to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee over the last 8 years. I will highlight the people/orgs that are from West Michigan.

• Maria & Doug DeVos – $593,550.00
• Aric Nesbitt – $543,025.00
• Compete Michigan PAC – $415,089.68
• James Stamas – $337,950.00
• Richard DeVos Jr.  – $336,775.00
• J C Huizenga – $335,650.00
• John Kennedy III – $301,700.00
• Daniel DeVos – $296,775.00
• Suzanne Cheryl DeVos – $296,775.00
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan PAC – $283,975.00
• DTE Energy PAC – $280,000.00
• Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers State PAC – $272,925.00
• Michigan Realtors SuperPAC – $267,950.00
• Ron Weiser – $262,000.00
• Meijer PAC – $251,975.00
• Nancy Kennedy – $241,700.00
• Matthew Moroun – $238,950.00
• Wayne Schmidt – $236,550.00 
• Heather and Ronald Boji – $230,000.00 
• Michael Jandernoa – $228,000.00
• Curtis VanderWall – $222,325.00 
• Pamella DeVos – $216,775.00
• Stephen Ehmann – $216,775.00 
• Growing Michigan Majority Fund – $212,550.00 
• Republican State Leadership Committee Michigan PAC – $207,750.00

Here you can see that there are 12 of the top 25 contributors to the House Republican Campaign Committee that are from West Michigan, just shy of half. 

What we can clearly see is that in terms of campaign contributions to the two largest Republican committees in Michigan, the House Republican Campaign Committee and the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, those from West Michigan dominate in terms of money. Sort of adds another layer to the notion of West Michigan Nice!