Donors and Dollars: Comparing the Policy Views of Donors and the Affluent

Are campaign donors simply affluent people who happen to give to campaigns, or do donors and the affluent differ in their policy views? The answer to this question shapes our understanding of the impact of money in politics and economic inequality more broadly. To answer this question, we conducted surveys of verified 2017-2018 donors, affluent individuals, and the general population. Comparing the preferences of copartisans reveals both parties’ donors have more ideologically extreme views on domestic policies than either the affluent or general public. On international issues, however, Democratic donors are more pro-internationalist than affluent and general public copartisans while Republican donors are similar to affluent copartisans. These differences are not attributable to demographic composition or level of political interest across the groups. Analyzing variation among donor-types, we find some types are indeed more likely to hold extreme views than others, but differences from the affluent persist regardless of whether the contributor gave to an out-of-state congressional race, donated a small amount, or recently gave to a presidential candidate.