You’ve seen the headlines: VP Kamala Harris’ entrance into the presidential race in late July fueled a surge in donations from younger, more diverse, first-time donors, mostly women.
So it’s a bit shocking that, according to data from Open Secrets, the percentage of women donors and the share of money they’re giving in federal elections is actually down from the last presidential election cycle. In other words, the political gender giving gap is widening.
In 2020, women made up 45 percent of donors; so far this year, they’re 43 percent. And in 2020, women gave 35 percent of total funds; this year, it’s down to 31 percent. Meanwhile, our friends at the Center for American Women and Politics, using different metrics in brand-new research, have identified a similar wide gap in women (52 percent) giving to political candidates versus funds (37 percent) contributed. The CAWP research examined giving to Congressional candidates only, although the findings reflect a similar pattern.
But CAWP has also identified a trend that gives us hope we can close these gaps: Democratic women donors give more to Democratic women candidates than they give to men—about 8 percent more, a small but significant difference.