WASHINGTON, D.C. — Among the top contributors to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential campaign are the usual suspects – a financial management firm, a real estate developer, a manufacturer of hand tools.

But Paul is also getting significant support from an unlikely source for a conservative Republican – the marijuana industry.

The Marijuana Policy Project gave Paul’s campaign $5,000 – the legal limit that a political committee can give a candidate, according to campaign finance records.

The National Cannabis Industry Association gave $5,000. Its executive director and federal lobbyist added another $2,000, according to a tally by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks campaign spending.

That’s a drop in the $9.4 million raised by Paul, but the industry association and its officials represent the 24th highest contributors to Paul’s campaign — on par with what he’s gotten from employees of mainstream players such as Chevron and Facebook.

The contributions to Paul – the first made in a presidential campaign by the Washington, D.C.-based groups – reflect the alliances that marijuana activists are making with conservatives.

Though many Republicans oppose legalizing pot, some including Paul believe that states should be left to make their own marijuana policies. Paul has stopped short of calling for legalization.

The direct contributions aren’t the only help that Paul is getting. Marijuana advocates are also donating to so-called super-PACs formed to campaign on his behalf.

ICC Holdings LLC – owner of Revolution Cannabis, an Illinois-based medicinal cannabis cultivator – gave $15,000 to America’s Liberty PAC, which is backing Paul’s election but is not subject to the same campaign finance limits.

Scott Banister, an angel investor and marijuana rights activist, donated $1.25 million to Concerned American Voters, another PAC backing Paul, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The contributions reflect a growing emphasis on federal policy by marijuana advocates. Despite success legalizing pot in Oregon, Washington state and Washington, D.C., federal laws that criminalize cannabis still pose problems such as keeping legal marijuana businesses from putting profits into a bank.

And pro-pot groups find few conservatives who are as supportive of their legislation as Paul. The Marijuana Policy Project gave him an “A-” ranking for co-sponsoring marijuana measures including one aimed at solving the banking problem.

The group gave an “A” to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate who called to remove marijuana from federal schedules of illegal drugs and regulate it like alcohol.

“Senator Paul has been supportive on specific issues that are important to our member businesses, both on the presidential campaign trail and in the Senate, and we’ve been supportive in turn,” said Taylor West, the deputy director of the Cannabis Industry Association.

Paul’s marijuana-friendly positions make him an outlier among Republicans. A 2013 Gallup poll found that while 58 percent of Americans now support marijuana legalization, only about a third of Republicans feel the same way.

Kent Ostrander, executive director of The Family Foundation of Kentucky, doubts that Paul, who currently lags in the polls, will be hurt by his stances.

Republicans are all over the map on the issue, said Ostrander. “Some are riled up against it, but others see some benefit for medicinal purposes,” he said.

Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst and senior editor of The Cook Political Report, said Paul’s positions attract younger voters across the political spectrum.

“There is absolutely a segment of Republican primary voters that won’t support him because of it,” she said. “Will it be the difference between winning and losing the nomination? I doubt it, but it’s hard to tell given everything else going on in the primary.”

More broadly, Paul is also a critic of harsh drug sentences.

On Wednesday, he emerged from a meeting with African American pastors saying he favors doing something about “draconian” penalties that can force the innocent to take plea deals. While stopping short of endorsing Paul, the pastors praised the senator for taking on their concerns.

Paul’s campaign declined to comment about the contributions, as did spokespeople in his Capitol Hill office. Neither ICC nor Bannister responded to press inquiries about their contributions to the super-PACs.

But marijuana advocates say the donations are necessary as they work to address issues such as the banking obstacle for legal pot merchants.

Federal law still classifies marijuana as an illegal, Schedule 1 drug, discouraging most banks from doing businesses with marijuana-related businesses, even in places where its use is legal.

Even though Oregon legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1998 and for recreational purposes last year, medical dispensers open accounts using ambiguous names, like “Natural Resources Marketing Inc.,” said Amy Margolis, a Portland attorney who represents marijuana businesses.

Their hope is that banks won’t notice what kind of business they’re in, she said.

Eventually many are discovered and their account closed, she said, forcing them to bank elsewhere. Margolis said she worries her firm’s account might also be closed because most of its clients pay with marijuana proceeds.

A budget amendment co-sponsored by Paul dissuades regulators from penalizing banks that take on marijuana businesses as customers. A Senate committee passed the amendment in July, and marijuana lobbyists hope it will be enacted as part of a spending bill now being negotiated in the House and Senate.

Most Republican presidential candidates have sounded similar notes about respecting state decisions, said Robert Capecchi, federal policies director of the Marijuana Policy Project. But Paul is unique in having actually advanced legislation.

He also won points with marijuana advocates as the only candidate to seek support at the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Business Summit in Denver in June, West said.

Paul didn’t attend conference events, including panels on marijuana cultivation and business practices, but he set up private fundraisers in a conference room at the convention center.

West described how Paul went around the room, listening to concerns of marijuana business owners.

“He acknowledged that these are entrepreneurs and business owners that deserves some fair treatment like everybody else,” he said.

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C., reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at kmurakami@cnhi.com.