Who Donated The Most Money To Republican President Candidates In Southern Ocean County?

New Jersey voters will take to the polls on Tuesday, June 7 to cast their ballots for the presidential nomination in each party. If campaign contributions are any indication of appeal, it could be a close race on the Republican side.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio leads the Republican candidates who are still in the race with $549,587 in individual donations in the state, according to publicly available contribution data from the Federal Election Commission.

The bulk of the individual contributions in New Jersey to Republican candidates -- $3,631,255 -- went to Gov. Chris Christie before he dropped out of the race; many of those were at the maximum individual contribution level of $2,700.

Here’s how much the other Republican candidates have received from New Jersey residents:

• Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — $491,758
• Neurosurgeon Ben Carson — $366,694
• Ohio Gov. John Kasich — $49,546
• Donald Trump — $44,600

National contribution numbers tell a similar story; Carson has received the most, followed by Cruz, Rubio, Trump and Kasich.

Those numbers, though, are a bit misleading.

While the campaigns have raised plenty of money through individual contributions, Super PACs have poured tons of money to support campaigns as well.

Outside groups have raised $46,726,605 for Cruz, $13,807,549 for Carson, $34,313,903 for Rubio, $6,729,311 for Kasich and $1,894,509 for Trump, according to OpenSecrets.

So who from the Barnegat-Manahawkin Patch area donated to the remaining Republican candidates? The answer is simple. No one.

No one contributed to the campaigns of Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Ben Carson or Donald Trump in the Barnegat-Manahawkin Patch area, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.

The maximum amount of money an individual can give to a campaign under federal law is $2,700.

Following voting in four states, Trump holds a commanding lead in delegate count with 82. Cruz has 17 pledged delegates, Rubio 16, Kasich 6 and Carson 4.

The last time New Jersey voted in a Republican presidential primary, the state’s citizens chose Mitt Romney, who received 81 percent of the vote, over Ron Paul, who received 10 percent of the vote.

Polls will be open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. on election day.