Representational Effects of Campaign Spending in U.S. Congressional Primaries

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/gh93h009x

Abstract

The average member of Congress is increasingly wealthier than the average citizens they represent, despite evidence that voters disapprove of wealthy candidates. This paper advances a potential explanation: wealthy legislators have advantages during party primaries, thereby limiting the pool of viable candidates in a general election. By combining F.E.C. donor files from the 2006-2016 congressional elections with demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau, I find that congressional candidates come overwhelmingly from a district's wealthiest neighborhoods. Wealthy candidates are successful in congressional primaries primarily because of their fundraising advantage--which is driven by donors from their same neighborhoods. Once elected, wealthy legislators are significantly more responsive to the preferences of their campaign contributors than they are to their co-partisan supporters or general election voters.

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