At the start, the 2020 presidential election was hailed as the most diverse in the history of U.S. politics. Not only that, it was turning up the cream of the crop: a former state’s attorney general, U.S. Congress members, former and current mayors, a previous governor, and a former Obama secretary. There were seven Democratic candidates of color in total competing in the election.
But a diverse field of candidates in an election means more than an eclectic mix of faces vying for public office. It can likely bring out new donors of color who have never contributed to political campaigns before.
“It’s very clear for Latino and Asian candidates that these donors really start donating more when the candidate is Latino or Asian,” says Jake Grumbach, an assistant professor at the University of Washington who studies the relationship between race and campaign finance.
Grumbach also found that the presence of candidates of color in elections increased financial contributions from donors of color who shared the same ethnic background. For example, the presence of an Asian-American candidate compels more donors of Asian descent to contribute.
This makes sense since studies have shown donors typically give more to the candidate who shares their gender, i.e., women donate more to female candidates while men donate more to male candidates. But Grumbach found sharing a racial identity had a much larger impact on campaign contributions than shared gender identity.
In two separate studies, Grumbach and his research partners examined three decades’ worth of campaign contributions in local elections across the U.S. over the span of 30 years. Those individual contributions amounted to a total of $33 billion. Roughly 9% of those political contributions came from donors of color.
Historically, however, the vast majority of money in U.S. politics has come from white donors, specifically white men. The racial wealth gap between white people and minority groups in America has stymied political donations from people of color, particularly black and Latino families, simply because they have less money to give.
And if money equals influence in politics, that leaves minority voters at a severe disadvantage.
“People of color in the U.S.—black and Latino people specifically—are underrepresented in American politics because they’re underrepresented in campaign finance,” Grumbach said.
Racial identity vs. campaign contributions
Whether a similar correlation between racial identity and campaign contributions occurs in a presidential election has yet to be determined since this year’s election is the first time there has been such a diverse pool of candidates in the race.
Nevertheless, the diverse field did attract donors of color eager to contribute to a change in representation in the White House. But with all except one candidate of color left in the race—Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard continues her campaign despite lagging in fundraising and polling—these donors are forced to decide whether they will commit their money, time, or vote to any one of the remaining candidates in the all-white field.
Ebony Edwards-Ellis, a 43-year-old commercial housekeeper and author in New York City, was part of the “KHive”—the moniker for loyal Harris supporters online—before switching to Castro after Harris’s departure from the race. But Castro, too, dropped out just one month later.
Edwards-Ellis, who identifies as African-American, had donated $160 to both Harris’s and Castro’s campaigns and chipped in a few $5 donations to Cory Booker. With every one of her supported candidates gone, Edwards-Ellis has diverted her attention to the down-ballot elections.
“Castro was the last of ‘the good ones,’” Edwards-Ellis tells Fortune. “Everyone else left is ‘problematic’—too old, too inexperienced, too racist, too misogynistic, too eager to win over Obama-Trump supporters…to bother with.” She has no plans to donate to or canvass for any of the remaining candidates.
Mike Ryu, a 34-year-old Asian-American instructional designer in Los Angeles, has similar plans. Ryu donated $2,800 to Andrew Yang’s campaign before the tech entrepreneur exited the race. Another Yang Gang-er and Angeleno, Dolly Ave, 24, who identifies as Asian-American, donated a total of $200 from her income as a freelance photographer.
Since Ryu maxed out his individual donations for the presidential election, he plans to work with other Yang Gang-ers to support grassroots organizing for candidates who hold platforms similar to Yang’s in L.A.’s municipal elections. Ave, meanwhile, is undecided.
“I cannot donate or canvass until I fully believe and understand both [the candidates’] policies and their intentions,” Ave, who attended a Bernie Sanders rally in Venice Beach, Calif., during her candidate research, shares. “I think it’s important for Americans to dive deep into the reasons why we are voting for a candidate.”
Nataly Calderon is a 20-year-old political science major based in East Las Vegas. She devoted her energy as an intern for Castro’s campaign operations in Nevada and contributed a small amount to his run before the former housing secretary dropped out.
Calderon, who identifies as Latinx, had been part of Team Elizabeth Warren and did some canvassing for the campaign. Will she donate to the cause like she did with Castro’s?
“I’m a broke college student. So, I plan to donate money to whoever becomes the presidential nominee,” Calderon states candidly. “But I’ve been looking at the Arizona Senate race and a few House races in Texas to maybe donate to in the future.” Calderon had been hoping for a Warren-Castro ticket.
It’s anyone’s guess where orphaned donors of color will take their support next and in what way. But those who spoke to Fortune mostly agreed that their primary goal now was to beat President Donald Trump in the general election, meaning they are prepared to vote for the Democratic nominee—no matter who it is.
When diversity doesn’t translate to equity
After Harris, Booker, and Castro—all highly qualified candidates of color who drew public support for their runs—dropped out, their campaigns cited the same issue: money.
According to filings to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Harris raised a total of $40,884,080 in funds during her campaign, while Andrew Yang raised $38,513,332 and Booker raised $25,773,192. Castro, one of the seemingly popular candidates of color, raised a meager $10,302,020 in total campaign funds.
By comparison, white candidates like Sanders have successfully raised staggering amounts of money. In total, Sanders has raised $134,268,972 for his campaign, while Warren had raised $93,028,094 before dropping out of the race. Even Pete Buttigieg—the former mayor of South Bend., Ind., and a virtual newcomer in national politics—managed to secure $82,998,032 in total funds before recently suspending his campaign.
Grumbach’s study showed candidates of color are competitive to white candidates in terms of fundraising in local elections. But that may not translate to a larger-scale race like the presidential election, in which the stakes are much higher.
“Fundraising is a metric to show how much people believe in you,” says Dita Bhargava, former vice chair of the Connecticut Democratic Party who hosted a fundraiser for Harris’s campaign at her home in Greenwich last year. “It’s a harder sell as a woman or as a person of color.”
Bhargava herself was a candidate in Connecticut’s 2018 state treasurer election. She was able to partially fund her campaign through the state’s Citizens’ Election Program, but it wasn’t enough.
“There are big issues in our country in terms of money in politics. There’s no doubt,” Bhargava continues. “Until we correct that system, we have to make sure that our good candidates are able to have a fighting chance.”
Clay Middleton, a political operative based in South Carolina, believes that candidates of color often lose out to big bundle donors especially in a race as crowded as this year’s.
“There is an element of, well, I may go with a safe choice than go with the best choice,” says Middleton, who was a senior political adviser on Booker’s campaign. Despite the U.S. senator’s ability to appeal to undecided voters and attract a diverse group of supporters, large donors didn’t think Booker could beat President Trump.
“Some felt that his message would not resonate, so they decided to go elsewhere,” Middleton says. Defeating President Trump is the end goal for many Democratic supporters, particularly among the party’s African-American voting bloc.
While some of the candidates in the now all-white field appear to have attracted supporters of color to some degree, there’s no consensus on who will likely secure the most votes among the country’s diverse minority voting bloc in the upcoming primaries.
“Folks are really focused on beating Donald Trump,” says Rashad Robinson, the spokesperson for the Color of Change PAC, whose civil rights advocacy organization focuses on mobilizing black voters. “And so right now people will be leaning into that.”
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—How the 2020 election could influence your personal finances
—WATCH: What happens to leftover campaign funds once a candidate drops out?
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