Louisianans donated $2.9 million to presidential candidates last year, with Republican candidates accounting for $2.3 million of the donations and Democrats receiving $524,470, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
As Gannett Louisiana reports, former Gov. Bobby Jindal, who ended his presidential bid in November, topped the list, receiving $820,000 from home-state contributors. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton collected $444,085, followed closely by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and presidential hopeful, with $407,482.
Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, collected $70,604 from Louisianans last year.
Jindal, who was term-limited as governor, watched his popularity plummet in Louisiana as he spent months campaigning in Iowa, but some Louisianans were excited about the possibility of seeing him in the White House.
“Gov. Jindal demonstrated to me the type of character, courage and leadership that I thought we would need in Washington,” William Ledbetter, 73, an attorney from Bossier City who donated $500 to Jindal’s campaign, tells Gannett Louisiana.
Ledbetter says he donated $100 to another Republican, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, before Jindal entered the race.
“I thought he was the man that had the character that I would like leading our country,” he says of Carson. “But the public, I’m afraid, is not going to buy into what he has to offer.”
With Jindal out of the race, Ledbetter isn’t sure who he will support going forward.
“I’m waiting to see how this all shakes out.” he says.
Carson received $284,358 from donors in the state. Louisianans also supported other Republican presidential hopefuls, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who received $307,710. New York businessman Donald Trump collected $31,344 and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz got $258,300.
