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Civitas Outlook
Topic
Politics
Published on
Sep 4, 2024
Contributors
Grant Ferguson
James Gimpel
Mark Owens
Daron Shaw
A man drops a dollar bill in a donation box generated by AI (OpenAI, 2/5/2025)

The Surge of the Small Donorate in U.S. Elections: A View from Texas Statewide Campaigns.”

Contributors
Grant Ferguson
Grant Ferguson
Grant Ferguson
James Gimpel
James Gimpel
James Gimpel
Mark Owens
Mark Owens
Mark Owens
Daron Shaw
Daron Shaw
Senior Fellow
Daron Shaw
Summary
This research takes aim at the rise of small-dollar contributors and engages the question of how they are redirecting campaigns and elections. Relying on complete data on contributions from statewide elections in Texas, we detail the increase of these contributors across a 20-year span, and six election cycles.
Summary
This research takes aim at the rise of small-dollar contributors and engages the question of how they are redirecting campaigns and elections. Relying on complete data on contributions from statewide elections in Texas, we detail the increase of these contributors across a 20-year span, and six election cycles.

Over the last twenty years, a remarkable surge in small donor contributing has been observed throughout the United States. Little is known, however, about the geographic origin of these small donors. In this research, we ask whether the impressive emergence of small donors is observed in the same places the large donations spring from, or whether these donors occupy a distinct, more dispersed, geography. If the new donors are emerging from locations where donations are traditionally scarce, then perhaps this extraordinary development is more politically significant. We find that small donor fundraising has had a centrifugal impact on the campaign playing field, bringing fundraising into closer congruence with other grassroots outreach efforts. The democratization of campaign finance is well underway with observers now engaged in a vigorous debate about the consequences.

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This paper was originally published by Political Geography

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