The top 10 Michigan candidates raised 59 percent of all donations


In Michigan politics, state-level candidates and officeholders raised $104.8 million between Jan. 1, 2021, and Aug. 22, 2022. More than $61.7 million, or 59 percent, of all donations reported by candidate committees were raised by the 10 individuals at the top of the list.

Top 10 Michigan candidates (1/1/2021 – 8/22/2022)

Here are the 10 Michigan candidates and officeholders who have raised the most money so far in the 2022 election cycle, according to campaign finance reports submitted to the Michigan Secretary of State:

Rank Candidate/Officeholder Name Total Donations
1 Gretchen Whitmer $26,046,921
2 Kevin Rinke $10,493,219
3 Perry Johnson $7,939,851
4 Jocelyn Benson $3,615,139
5 Dana Nessel $3,404,953
6 James Craig $3,284,082
7 Tudor Dixon $2,363,756
8 Garrett Soldano $2,185,107
9 Jason Wentworth $1,402,350
10 Aric Nesbitt $967,454

The list of Michigan candidates and officeholders includes anyone with a candidate PAC that filed campaign finance reports during this time period, and may include former candidates or current officeholders who are not running in this cycle. PACs not associated with a candidate are not included in the values above.

The data above are based on campaign finance reports that active Michigan PACs submitted to the Michigan Secretary of State. Political expenditures that are not controlled by candidates or their campaigns, known as satellite spending, are not included in candidate totals. Federal PACs are not required to report to state agencies.

Transparency USA publishes campaign finance data following major reporting deadlines. State or federal law may require filers to submit additional reports. Data from additional reports due in between the deadlines below are published along with the reports listed here.

Report Name Report Due Date
2022 Annual/January 1/31/2022
2022 April (PACs) 4/25/2022
2022 July (PACs) 7/25/2022
2022 Post-Primary 9/1/2022
2022 Pre-General 10/28/2023
2022 Post-General 12/8/2022

This article is a joint publication from Ballotpedia and Transparency USA, who are working together to provide campaign finance information for state-level elections. Learn more about our work here.