dc4aff2881b61eb8…

Preprint
ID: 5e1f540bcd361a001afed2642,685 bytesFirst seen Jun 24, 20261 collection

Fields

NameValue
abstractIncreasing grassroots, small dollar donations has long been appealing to campaign finance reformers. Still, important questions remain. Are small donors becoming more common, especially in the Democratic Party? Are small donors really different from larger donors? And what do they tell us about the makeup and direction of the two parties? We use financial records and survey data to track small donors over time and examine their demographic and ideological characteristics. We find that, in recent cycles, the Democratic Party has attracted a growing share of money from small dollar donors, driven at least in part by technological advantages and the changing composition of their supporters. These donors are more demographically representative of the American public but share similar levels of ideological extremism as large donors. Importantly, female and ideologically extreme candidates are most likely to benefit from small donor funding, providing mixed evidence regarding the efficacy of potential reforms.
abstractViews2541
approvedDate2020-01-15T18:48:34.520Z
assetFileNameAlbert_La_Raja_SPSA_Draft.pdf
assetFileSizeBytes478657
assetMimeTypeapplication/pdf
assetUrlhttps://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5e1f540bcd361a001afed264/original/small-dollar-donors-and-the-evolving-democratic-party.pdf
authorIds["name:zachary albert","name:raymond la raja"]
categoryIds["5ce663395846762193c9c422"]
citations6
commentsCount0
communityIdAPSA
competingInterestsDeclarationnull
contentDownloads1764
contentTypeWorking Paper
contentTypeId5ce663395846762193c9c430
doi10.33774/apsa-2020-9rnkd
doiUrlhttps://doi.org/10.33774/apsa-2020-9rnkd
engageUrlhttps://www.cambridge.org/engage/coe/article-details/5e1f540bcd361a001afed264
eventIdnull
funders[]
gainedEthicsApprovalnull
hasCompetingInterestsnull
isLatestVersiontrue
keywords["SPSA2020","Campaign Finance","Small Donors","Political Parties","Political Participation","Money in Politics"]
licenseId5cc9d9bf7d4e0000ac04ef25
publishedDate2020-01-15T18:48:34.531Z
statusPUBLISHED
statusDate2020-01-15T18:48:34.531Z
subjectId5e68cb1bd1f19d49ce3ac752
submittedDate2020-01-15T18:09:36.233Z
supplementaryFiles[]
thumbnailUrlhttps://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5e1f540bcd361a001afed264/mediumThumb/small-dollar-donors-and-the-evolving-democratic-party.jpg
titleSmall Dollar Donors and the Evolving Democratic Party
version1
vornull
webLinks[]

Canonical JSON

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    "abstract": "Increasing grassroots, small dollar donations has long been appealing to campaign finance reformers. Still, important questions remain. Are small donors becoming more common, especially in the Democratic Party? Are small donors really different from larger donors? And what do they tell us about the makeup and direction of the two parties? We use financial records and survey data to track small donors over time and examine their demographic and ideological characteristics. We find that, in recent cycles, the Democratic Party has attracted a growing share of money from small dollar donors, driven at least in part by technological advantages and the changing composition of their supporters. These\ndonors are more demographically representative of the American public but share similar levels of ideological extremism as large donors.  Importantly, female and ideologically extreme\ncandidates are most likely to benefit from small donor funding, providing mixed evidence\nregarding the efficacy of potential reforms.",
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    "approvedDate": "2020-01-15T18:48:34.520Z",
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Appears in 1 collection

cambridge-up/open-engage1 version · Jun 24, 2026

Full hash:dc4aff2881b61eb81702da84805811d6c4a48185d314013f4aac4443b33cbd52