NextEra Energy Inc., which is seeking approval to purchase Hawaiian Electric Industries for $4.3 billion, contributed more than $1 million to a super-PAC supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign.

The company, which owns the utility Florida Power & Light, donated the money to Right to Rise, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Despite going big for Bush, NextEra is also contributing to Hawaii Democrats these days.

NextEra Energy President Eric Gleason speaks to the Civil Beat Editorial Board last December.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

In total, NextEra spent $1.1 million in political contributions in 2014 and $4.8 million for lobbying. This year, it has already spent $1.2 million in lobbying, according to OpenSecrets.org, the nonpartisan, nonprofit website sponsored by the Center for Responsive Politics.

In Hawaii, recipients of NextEra contributions have included U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, who got $10,000 from the company in the 2014 special election to serve the last two years of the late Dan Inouye’s term.

The latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, which cover the April-June quarter this year, show that NextEra Energy, Inc. PAC gave $1,000 to Schatz. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii received $1,250 while her colleague Mark Takai received $2,000.

Another website that tracks political donations, Follow the Money (run by the nonpartisan, nonprofit National Institute on Money in State Politics), says other recipients of NextEra’s contributions include former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat who received $9,000 in his unsuccessful re-election in 2014.

NextEra has registered two non-candidate committees with the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission, suggesting that it plans to spend more money locally.

For the general election, meanwhile, NextEra donated to Democrats David Ige and Shan Tsutsui, who received $1,000 in their successful races for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively.

State Sen. Rosalyn Baker, who chairs the Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee, received $500 from NextEra last year, while former state Rep. Denny Coffman, former chairman of Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, received $500 in 2012. Both are Democrats.

In another indication of the company’s interests in Hawaii, NextEra has four Hawaii-based lobbyists through a subsidiary called NEE Acquisition: Mihoko Ito, Mike Kido, Gary Slovin and Tiffany Yajima. Each is experienced and has many clients — for example, they lobby for eBay, which was founded by Pierre Omidyar, the publisher of Honolulu Civil Beat.

The Florida company has also registered two non-candidate committees with the state Campaign Spending Commission, suggesting that it plans to spend more money locally: NextEra Energy Transmission, LLC and NextEra Energy, Inc. Political Action Committee. Neither group reported any contributions or receipts in the first half of 2015, however.

Ige said last month that he opposes the company’s purchase of HEI, saying it has not demonstrated that the sale would benefit consumers. The acquisition awaits a decision from the state Public Utilities Commission.

But NextEra isn’t giving up, and it has been active in the political world for years.

According to Influence Explorer, run by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, NextEra spent more than $5.1 million in campaign financing from 1989 through the middle of 2014. More than $4.6 million of that amount was spent at the state level.

NextEra also spent more than $19 million in lobbying over the same period.