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? To investigate this, we surveyed verified 2017–2018 donors, affluent individuals, and the general public. Comparing copartisans shows that donors in both parties hold more ideologically extreme positions on domestic policy than either the affluent or the general public. On international issues, Democratic donors are more pro-internationalist than their affluent and general-public counterparts, while Republican donors resemble affluent copartisans. These patterns cannot be explained by demographic differences or levels of political interest. Examining variation across donor types, we find that some donors are more prone to extreme positions than others, yet donors remain distinct from the affluent whether they contributed out of state, donated small amounts, or recently supported a presidential candidate.