How much have the 2020 presidential candidates received from the healthcare industry?

Healthcare is a hot topic in the 2020 presidential campaign. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has pledged to take no money from Big Pharma or health insurers and has urged his fellow candidates to follow his lead.

So far the healthcare industry, which includes no only Big Pharma and health insurers but also doctors and hospitals, has contributed more than $5 million to the election across the more than 20 presidential candidates.

President Trump comes in as the top recipient of healthcare money, with $1.4 million donated to his campaign from the healthcare sector.

Bernie Sanders comes in at number five, which may seem shocking due to the Senator’s vow to not take money from the industry he is fighting hard against. But the majority of Sanders’ contributions from the healthcare industry does not come from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. A campaign spokeswoman for the Sanders campaign said that any contribution that conflicts with the Senator’s pledge will be returned but that his pledge does not apply to the individual workers employed in the healthcare industry that may contribute to his campaign, as many of them “directly feel the pain of the healthcare industry’s relentless greed.”

Elizabeth Warren closely follows Sanders with the next highest healthcare contributions totaling $344,001. A spokesperson for Warren’s campaign said: “Elizabeth is taking no money from PACs, lobbyists, or executives of health insurance companies and Big Pharma. She isn’t taking any PAC money or federal lobbyist money or doing high dollar fundraisers and call-time with wealthy donors.”

Here is how the candidates breakdown, courtesy of data from OpenSecrets.org:

1. President Donald Trump (R) – $1.4 million.
2. Pete Buttigieg (D) – $548,014
3. Kamala Harris (D) – $517,430
4. Joe Biden (D) – $462,335
5. Bernie Sanders (D) – $359,986
6. Elizabeth Warren (D) – $344,001
7. Cory Booker (D) – $304,734
8. Beto O’Rourke (D) – $255,214
9. Amy Klobuchar (D) – $209,145
10. Julian Castro (D) – $122,684
11. Tulsi Gabbard (D) – $120,623
12. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) – $116,627
13. Jay Inslee (D) – $81,642
14. John Delaney (D) – $63,845
15. John Hickenlooper (D) – $59,334
16. Andrew Yang (D) – $49,522
17. Michael Bennet (D) – $31,063
18. Marianne Williamson (D) – $21,872
19. Seth Moulton (D) – $21,636
20. Bill de Blasio (D) – $21,125
21. Steve Bullock (D) – $18,871
22. Tim Ryan (D) – $14,260
23. William F. Weld (R) – $6,085