by Stacy Montemayor and Pete Quist, NIMP; Karl Evers-Hillstrom and Douglas Weber, CRP | 2020-11-19 Print Button

REVISION Dec. 22, 2020: This report has been updated online to reflect a correction to the figure for women donors as a proportion of state-level Republican candidate fundraising. The percent was erroneously listed as 41 percent and now is corrected to 22 percent.


Unprecedented donations poured into 2020 state and federal races. Political donors gave far more money than ever before to candidates for Congress and the presidency in the 2020 election cycle, and they’re also on track to break donation records to state-level candidates.

However, while donations to federal candidates have doubled since the last presidential election cycle, the same kind of unprecedented increase hasn’t translated to the state level where contribution records were broken but not obliterated. That’s according to a joint analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in Politics.

Federal and state elections broke money records, but federal elections saw larger increase

On the federal level, the total cost of the 2020 election is expected to near $14 billion, more than twice as expensive as the 2016 cycle. House and Senate candidates smashed fundraising records, bringing in twice as much money as they did in the previous cycle.

Democrats were the driving force behind those unprecedented fundraising figures, capitalizing on their supporters’ enthusiasm to unseat President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress. Democratic congressional candidates raised $1.2 billion compared to Republicans’ $691 million.

Figure 1: Fundraising by Federal Candidates

While the increase at the state level was significantly smaller, contributions to gubernatorial and state legislative candidates are expected to set new records for a presidential election year, nearing $1.9 billion in the 2020 cycle, up from nearly $1.6 billion in the 2016 contest. The Institute’s projection is based on campaign finance trends, which may be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and prospective donors voting early then potentially disengaging from making political contributions.

Figure 2: Fundraising by State-Level Candidates

Democratic gubernatorial and state legislative candidates saw the biggest boost in contributions. Donations to Democrats accounted for 54 percent of the money given to state candidates in the 2020 cycle. That marks a reversal from the 2016 and 2012 cycles, when Republicans raised 52 percent and 55 percent of all state-level campaign cash, respectively.

"This year saw unprecedented campaign finance trends in virtually every way,” said Edwin Bender, executive director of the National Institute on Money in Politics. “For starters, elections were more expensive. But donor engagement patterns changed as well and favored Democrats at every turn. At the state level, out-of-state contributions from individuals began significantly favoring Democrats. Small donors to state candidates continued to play a modest role but edged up slightly for Democratic state candidates. And a continuing trend of increased female donor participation occurred, largely favoring Democratic candidates.”

Small donors changed the federal landscape, but didn’t wade into state elections

Small donors — individuals giving $200 or less to each candidate — transformed the fundraising landscape for congressional and presidential candidates thanks to a perfect storm of technological innovation and political polarization. It’s easier than ever to donate to a political campaign online, and candidates invested big money into reaching those donors.

Small donors gave a total of $1.8 billion to federal candidates through mid-October, three times as much as they contributed through the entirety of the 2016 cycle. Overall, small donors accounted for 27 percent of contributions to federal candidates in the 2020 cycle. That’s up from around 21 percent in 2016 and 19 percent in 2012.

Democratic Senate candidates got 41 percent of their money from small donors compared to Republicans’ 28 percent. But Republican House candidates raised a higher percentage from small donors than did Democrats, 23 percent to 19 percent. President-elect Joe Biden raised 39 percent of his money from those unitemized donors compared to 45 percent for Trump, who had the best small-dollar showing for a Republican presidential candidate.

“2020 is the cycle where we really see the potential for small donor engagement on full display,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. “Moving forward, the question for many will be whether this intense interest from small-dollar donors will be maintained in a post-Trump era. Another question is whether the parties will seek to redirect small donors, especially given that the historic surge in small donations to Donald Trump and to Democrats in competitive Senate races was not matched by success at the ballot box.”

Figure 3: Small Donors Raise Big Money for Federal Candidates

That small donor revolution didn’t arrive at the state level. The percentage of fundraising from donors giving $200 or less remained relatively flat in state legislative races. In gubernatorial contests, small donors accounted for 11 percent of fundraising, up from 5 percent in 2016 but down from 16 percent in 2012.

Republican gubernatorial and legislative candidates saw the proportion of contributions from small donors fall from 9 percent in 2012 to 6 percent in 2020. Democrats, meanwhile, benefited from a modest increase in funding from small donors, bringing in 12 percent of their money from bite-sized donors, up from 9 percent in the last two comparable election cycles.

Out-of-state donations dominated federal elections

The explosion of small-dollar contributions to federal candidates correlated with candidates’ increased reliance on donations from individuals who live nowhere near their state. Democratic Senate candidates Amy McGrath of Kentucky and Jaime Harrison of South Carolina, who hold the top two spots for most money raised by a congressional campaign, each brought in more than 90 percent of their money from outside their home states.

Overall, Democrats running for Senate raised 80 percent of their money from out-of-state donors in the 2020 cycle. That’s up from 57 percent four year earlier. Senate Republicans saw their out-of-state donations rise, too. As did candidates of both parties running for House.

Figure 4: Out-of-State Donors to Congressional Candidates

That kind of enthusiasm didn’t manifest for state candidates, whose races don’t receive the same kind of national attention. In 2012, 87 percent of contributions came from in-state. In 2016 it increased slightly to 90 percent before returning to 87 percent this election cycle.

Democratic candidates for state office benefited most from faraway donors. So far in 2020, only 25 percent of contributions from out-of-state donors went to Republican candidates while Democratic candidates brought in 74 percent of all contributions from outside their state. That’s a change from previous election cycles when a larger share of the out-of-state money went to Republicans. For example, in what was expected to be a highly contested gubernatorial race in Montana, out-of-state donors gave $2.5 million, and $1.8 million went to Democratic candidates in the race, predominantly to Mike Cooney’s failed bid.

Figure 5: Out-of-State Donors to State-Level Candidates

Women gave to federal and state candidates in record numbers

For decades, women accounted for a small fraction of campaign fundraising. That changed in the 2020 election cycle.

Women gave a total of $1.4 billion to federal-level candidates, up from about $590 million in the 2016 cycle. Contributions from men doubled from the previous election cycle, but women still increased their share of candidate fundraising to 41 percent. That continues a slow but steady increase, up from 36 percent in 2016 and 31 percent in 2012.

Donations from women to Democrats made up $1 billion of the 2020 total. Their share of contributions to Democrats and Republicans reached 45 percent and 33 percent respectively, both the highest-ever marks.

Figure 6: Women Donors to Federal Candidates

The increase is even larger on the state level. In 2012 and 2016, contributions from women represented only 24 percent of all contributions from individuals, but in 2020 their share rose to 31 percent.

As with federal races, Democrats continued to receive a higher percentage of their fundraising from women and saw a significant boost in that percentage over the past two comparable election cycles. Women donors accounted for 38 percent of all contributions from individuals to Democratic candidates in the 2020 cycle, up from 30 and 31 percent in 2012 and 2016, respectively.

Figure 7: Women Donors to State-Level Candidates


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