Harris takes lion’s share of university staff campaign donations

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are neck and neck in the polls just days out from the US presidential election, but new campaign finance figures show there is only one winner among higher education staff.

Analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data reveals that almost 100 per cent of campaign donations from employees at some elite US colleges have gone towards the Democratic party ahead of the presidential and congressional elections on 5 November.

The figures, provided to Times Higher Education by the Open Secrets non-profit organisation, show that the vast majority (86 per cent) of the top 100 education contributors in the 2023-24 election cycle are staff at universities.

Together, they had donated $61.6 million (£47.9 million) to candidates and parties between 1 January 2023 and 17 October – 93.1 per cent of it to Democrats, 5.2 per cent to Republicans and 1.8 per cent to third parties or independent candidates.

In addition, these university employees contributed a total of $10.2 million to outside spending groups this cycle – 97 per cent of which went to liberal groups, and only 0.5 per cent to conservatives.

Jennifer Heerwig, an associate professor of sociology at Stony Brook University, said the data supported the well-known idea that higher education is ideologically liberal, and that other industries appear to be much less partisan.

The most elite institutions were even more left-wing – with employees of Ivy League universities contributing 95 per cent of party funds to vice-president Harris’ party and 99.4 per cent of “soft money” to liberal groups.

“There is some evidence that education itself has a liberalising effect on social and political attitudes, so it shouldn’t be all that surprising that those with the highest levels of education are the most Democratic,” added Dr Heerwig.

However, she said the data does not capture more moderate faculty who do not make campaign contributions, or those which are below $200 and not large enough to be included in the disclosure records.

Open Secrets said that political donations from within higher education are typically from professors and other staff at the university or college – but may include a small number of students.

Contributions within the education industry largely come from individuals associated with various institutions, as universities and schools typically cannot form political action committees (PACs).

Jeff Milyo, professor of economics at the University of Missouri, said the figures may underestimate just how partisan academia is because some higher-paid faculty, particularly in business schools or law schools, may be relatively more right-leaning.

“There should be no doubt that higher education, and perhaps especially more elite institutions, are wildly left-leaning, with some variation attributable to geography or mission.”

Staff at the 20 largest higher education contributors donated about a quarter of the entire education sector’s outlay in 2023-24.

Those at the University of California reached into their wallets more often than any other, donating more than $11.5 million in total.

And analysis suggests that individuals at the California Institute of Arts are the most supportive of Ms Harris and her colleagues, with 99.9 per cent of their donations going to the Democrats.

They were closely followed by employees associated with Stanford University Medical School (99.8 per cent Democratic) and Stanford Business School (99.4 per cent).

In contrast, the most Republican-leaning institution is Wayne State University, where 42.4 per cent of candidate and party funds went to the GOP.

Others that were relatively more in favour of Mr Trump and Republican candidates were staff at University of Alabama (31.5 per cent Republican), Purdue University (23.4 per cent) and Texas A&M University (18 per cent).

Across the whole education sector, the Open Secrets analysis shows that Mr Trump has received less in donations than Sherrod Brown, a Democratic senator for Ohio, and only slightly more than Jon Tester, another Democrat in the Senate.

Costas Panagopoulos, distinguished professor of political science at Northeastern University, said the overall patterns were consistent with what has been observed in previous cycles.

“Donors who worked in higher education have generally supported Democrats and left-leaning groups more so than Republicans or organisations on the right,” added Professor Panagopoulos.

“That said, the GOP has intensified its criticism of higher education in recent years and demonised universities in ways that have likely alienated faculty and staff at those institutions even more so than in the past.”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com