A Center for Responsive Politics Report



— by Sarah Bryner and Doug Weber, March 2018

Introduction

In 2013, the Center for Responsive Politics produced a report documenting recent trends in giving by female donors and raising money by female candidates. Since that time, the political landscape for female candidates has shifted — Hillary Clinton was the first major party candidate at the top of the ticket, and we now have more women serving in federal elected office than ever before. 2017 was also a significant year for female activism, beginning with the Women's March on Washington and ending with the #MeToo movement. Given these developments, we document here donations by women in the most recent election cycles and show a major increase in the number of viable female candidates seeking to serve in Congress.

The 2018 election cycle largely shows increased participation by Democratic women to the benefit of Democratic candidates, both female and male. Republican candidates have received no more support from women than they had historically. Given that 42 percent of women voted for President Donald Trump, Republican women are certainly not a small fraction of voters, but their activism does not appear to be reflected in political candidacies or in their donation patterns.

In this report, we will discuss the gender balance of the 2018 candidate pool and then explore the number of donations — and amount of money — from female donors to federal candidates, parties and political action committees. As was the case in 2013, we do not have information about the race of political donors or candidates, but we are hoping to have access to data on the race of female candidates in the coming months. Women voters do not behave monolithically, and so we recognize that writing about them as such is a limited approach. As data become available, we will incorporate it through updates to this report.

Women as Candidates

The Center for Responsive Politics has been tracking the number of male and female candidates going back through the 1990 cycle. In 1990, less than 10 percent of all federal congressional candidates were female. That number increased to 16 percent in 2016 — the highest ever — but now so far in 2018, 23 percent of all federal candidates are women.

CHART: Number of Female Candidates per Election Year

However, in this case, a rising tide does not lift all boats. While women now make up 30 percent of the candidates fielded by the Democrats, Republican women only make up 13 percent of their own party's candidate pool, meaning that 75 percent of female candidates are Democrats. That 13 percent is the highest percentage for Republican women since 1989, but it represents an increase of only 5.5 percentage points since the 1990 cycle, compared to a much steeper climb by the Democrats of 21 percentage points.

30% of Democrat candidates in 2018 are women

13% of Republican candidates in 2018 are women

This slow increase in the number of female candidates is also reflected in the gender makeup of Congress. As OpenSecrets has documented, reelection rates for members of Congress are generally 80-98 percent and given that Congress is made up of more men than women (~20 percent women in the 115th Congress), it is easier for women to pick up seats in open seat contests than as challengers. The reelection rate for incumbents is boosted by the sizeable campaign war chests they carry from one election cycle to another, whereas challengers generally have to start fundraising from nothing (except when a sitting House member challenges a Senator). While money alone does not make a race competitive, more competitive races do tend to see more spending and successful challengers nearly always spend far more than unsuccessful challengers.

The overall number of candidates refers to candidates who registered with the Federal Election Commission, which does not mean that they actually raised significant amounts of money. When we consider candidates who could be considered "viable", defined here as having raised more than $50,000 by the end of December 2017, Democratic women make up an even larger percentage of their party's candidates. This implies that the increase in female candidates is not just made up of people running as "warm bodies," but rather that the women running are active candidates raising enough money to potentially win their elections.

This is not true for Republican women, who make up a nearly identical proportion of their party's serious challenger and open seat candidates as they do the overall pool (13 percent). This is actually down in 2018 from their previous high of 14 percent in 2014.



Women as Donors

As with candidates, there has been a surge of donations from women, again mostly to the benefit of the Democrats. While men continue to account for the majority of contributions to Democratic and Republican House candidates, women currently account for 31 percent of all contributions, higher than in any previous cycle. This increase appears to be driven by female financial support for Democratic candidates, particularly Democratic women. Women account for 44 percent of the contributions to Democratic women and 34 percent of the contributions to Democratic men, both historic highs. This increase has not been reflected in donations to Republican candidates, which remain flat.

CHART: Percent from Women to House Candidates

Cycle All Candidates Democratic Women Democratic Men Republican Women Republican Men 2018 31% 44% 34% 28% 23% 2016 28% 40% 29% 29% 24% 2014 27% 39% 28% 28% 23% 2012 27% 39% 27% 28% 24% 2010 27% 37% 26% 29% 24% 2008 27% 38% 26% 28% 23% 2006 27% 40% 27% 26% 23% 2004 26% 39% 26% 27% 22% 2002 27% 40% 26% 30% 24% 2000 27% 41% 25% 28% 24%

In addition to women making up a larger portion of the donor pool, they also account for a higher than usual percentage of all donations. Women have accounted for 30 percent of all federal contributions so far — not a record but higher than usual. Again, they have been favoring Democrats and liberal outside groups with 68 percent of their contributions — higher than in previous cycles. In contrast, male donors have given only 48 percent of contributions to Democrats and liberal outside groups — the largest gender gap since at least 1989.

CHART: Percent of Donations to Liberals vs. Conservatives

Cycle % from Women % of female contributions to Democrats/Liberals % of male contributions to Democrats/Liberals Gap 2018 30% 68% 48% 20% 2016 30% 62% 49% 13% 2014 25% 53% 44% 9% 2012 29% 49% 37% 13% 2010 26% 56% 46% 11% 2008 31% 64% 51% 13% 2006 27% 56% 46% 11% 2004 29% 56% 44% 12% 2002 24% 53% 46% 7% 2000 26% 49% 42% 7%

A closer look at female donors shows a marked split between women who are homemakers and other female donors. Female homemakers tend to be more conservative in preference. Other female donors are more constant in their level of contributions and more inclined to support Democrats. In the 2018 cycle, female non-homemakers accounted for 27 percent of all contributions — a historic peak — and favored Democrats more than in any previous cycle. Likewise, the partisan gap between female homemakers and female non-homemakers is greater this cycle than in any previous cycle.

CHART: Percent of Donations from Homemakers vs. Non-Homemakers

Cycle % from Female Homemakers % from Female Non-Homemakers 2018 3% 27% 2016 3% 26% 2014 5% 20% 2012 6% 23% 2010 6% 20% 2008 6% 25% 2006 7% 20% 2004 7% 22% 2002 2% 22% 2000 2% 24%

There is some evidence that female homemakers are sometimes proxy donors for their husbands. Their share of contributions tends to rise when there are limits on campaign contributions and fall when those limits are eased or eliminated. Up until the 2002 cycle, they accounted for 2-3 percent of contributions. That shot up to 7 percent in the 2004 cycle after unlimited soft money contributions were banned by the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act (BCRA), also known as McCain-Feingold. It then started to decline in 2010, the same year as the Citizens United ruling and is back down to pre-BCRA levels.

Women donors, women candidates

Generally, but not exclusively, female candidates tend to receive more money from women than their male counterparts, but there are significant exceptions. Despite Bernie Sanders not receiving as much money from women as did Hillary Clinton in 2016, he ranks No. 4 among Senate candidates in the percentage of money received from women so far in 2018. Other male Senate candidates have also done well with female donors. No Republican candidates appear on the top 10 list, nor have they since 2014. In 1990, the earliest cycle for which CRP has data, six of the top 10 Senate candidates in terms of the percentage of money they received from women were Republicans.

CHART: Top Senate Candidates Receiving Money from Women in 2018

Name Gender State Party From Women From Men %Fem Gillibrand, Kirsten F NY D $4,277,987 $3,183,785 57.3% Warren, Elizabeth F MA D $3,977,325 $3,469,982 53.4% Baldwin, Tammy F WI D $3,518,227 $3,077,675 53.3% Sanders, Bernie M VT I $700,621 $700,052 50% Stabenow, Debbie F MI D $1,620,812 $1,753,723 48% McCaskill, Claire F MO D $5,399,512 $6,144,072 46.8% O'Rourke, Beto M TX D $1,294,444 $1,481,681 46.6% Murphy, Christopher S M CT D $2,192,574 $2,593,568 45.8% Brown, Sherrod M OH D $4,284,614 $5,419,276 44.2% Feinstein, Dianne F CA D $928,867 $1,199,619 43.6%

Among House candidates, Democrats and in particular Democratic women have also received significant amounts of money from women. In the case of House candidates, they also are all Democrats, but nine of the ten are women.

CHART: Top House Candidates Receiving Money from Women in 2018

Candidate Gender District Party From Women From Men % Fem Coleman, Bonnie F NJ-12 D $106,149 $57,051 65% Lewis, John M GA-5 D $621,741 $372,123 62.6% Watson, Liz F IN-9 D $77,882 $47,116 62.3% Harris, Tamara F NJ-11 D $136,330 $87,250 61% Flores, Yolie F CA-34 D $88,150 $59,564 59.7% Ahmad, Nina F PA-2 D $67,104 $45,951 59.4% Clark, Katherine F MA-5 D $262,506 $180,007 59.3% Friedman, Alison F VA-10 D $559,071 $390,250 58.9% Myers, Cathy F WI-1 D $61,179 $43,398 58.5% Bateson, Regina F CA-4 D $184,408 $131,787 58.3%

It should be remembered that the vast majority of candidates depend more on men than women for campaign contributions. Men this cycle have also not shown exceptional favoritism to the Republicans — the gender gap in contributions has been driven by a shift to the Democrats from women. That said, we are seeing a surge in female donors driven by female non-homemakers to the benefit of Democrats, particularly Democratic women. In fact, 39 House candidates who have raised at least $100,000 in donations from people whose gender CRP could identify have raised more than 50 percent of their money from women — this is higher than any cycle for which CRP has data — 1996 comes in second, with 13 candidates having raised more than half their money from women.



2016, 2018 and the changing landscape for women candidates and donors

At the federal level, the 2016 campaign was notable for being the first to feature a female candidate at the top of one of the major party tickets. While Hillary Clinton's campaign didn't raise as much money as Obama's campaigns in 2012 or 2008, it was the first major party presidential campaign in CRP's data to raise a majority of its individual donations from women — both in terms of the number of donors and the amount of money raised. Clinton took in 52 percent of her total campaign haul from women, while Bernie Sanders took in 41 percent, a number lower also than Obama's total percent from women in both 2012 (44 percent) and 2008 (42 percent).

Clinton did not win, but clearly, events after the 2018 elections have led to a surge in political activity by women, both as donors and as candidates. 2017 saw the rise of the Women's March and the viral popularity of the #MeToo hashtag. When we break down the number of donors by month in 2017, two major events stand out: First, the surge in the number of female donors in January (the month of the Women's March on Washington) and in November (the month immediately following the allegations against Harvey Weinstein). Other than in these two months (and August), the number of female donors has tracked closely with the number of male donors. August's total donor numbers, for both men and women, are very high — and the top recipient of money from donors that month was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party committee for the House Democrats. August followed a tumultuous month in D.C.; July was noteworthy for the ultimate failure of the Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. August also saw major uprisings in Charlottesville — and is also when many members of Congress return to their districts during the recess period and use that opportunity to hold fundraisers.

CHART: Number of Donors by Month in 2017

Note that this only describes the number of women donating per month, not the amount of money women donated. Women tend to make up a larger portion of the donor pool when looking only at small donations; as the size of the contributions increases so too does the likelihood that the contribution came from a man. Even though women made up more than half of the donor pool in January 2017 and nearly equal portions in August and November, they continued to account for a much smaller portion of the total money given in those months. In January 2017, women comprised 61 percent of the donor pool but contributed only 40 percent of the total money.

CHART: Amount of Money Donated by Month in 2017

As discussed, the best chance to change the demographics of the U.S. Congress is through retirements. As of March 2018, we are on track to see a record number of retirements from mostly Republican members of the 115th Congress. So many open seats, combined with a larger-than-normal number of female candidates, could result in an increase in the number of women serving in Congress — but only if Democrats perform well. Given the dearth of Republican women candidates and their difficulty in fundraising once they do run, the gender balance of Congress is largely due to the success or failure of Democrats — more at this point in than at any other point in recent U.S. history.

Methodological Notes:

CRP uses chemiron to identify the number of female and male donors. This algorithm assigns a gender to a contributor based on their name, as well as other identifying information (like whether they use the prefix "Mrs." or "Mr."). In the case of larger donors, CRP reconciles any discrepancies or "unassigned" names (like Jamie) manually. CRP assigns gender to candidates as they file. In 2016, the Federal Election Commission started including contributions made by donors who ultimately donate more than $200 but do so in denominations of lower than $200. This inflates the number of donors in our contributions database compared to previous cycles.

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