Men Vastly Outgiving Women in 2024 Congressional Elections

Men are far outpacing women in the total amount contributed in 2024 congressional races, according to a new analysis from The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. The latest insights from CAWP’s Women, Money, & Politics Watch 2024 project come from a nationwide analysis of donors to congressional races on the Donor Gaps: Demographics Analysis page of Women, Money, & Politics Watch 2024.

 Analyzing data from election 2024 donations made during calendar year 2024 to all major party congressional candidates in the running as of July 15, 2024, CAWP researchers find that: 

• The total amount contributed by men to 2024 congressional candidates vastly exceeds the amount contributed by women. Men have provided 63% of all money contributed to congressional candidates with 37% provided by women.
• However, women fare better as a proportion of unique donors to congressional candidates than as a proportion of total money contributed. Women constitute 52% of unique donors to congressional candidates.
• Women are providing a higher share of the total amount contributed to Democratic than Republican congressional candidates. Whereas women have contributed 42% of all money given to Democratic congressional candidates, women have only contributed 29% of all money given to Republican congressional candidates.
• Women from historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups are especially underrepresented as donors to congressional candidates:
  • Black women have donated just 1% of all money contributed to 2024 congressional candidates.
  • Latinas have donated just 1% of all money contributed to 2024 congressional candidates.
  • Asian American women have donated just 1% of all money contributed to 2024 congressional candidates.
• Slight gender affinity effects are evident in giving patterns:
  • Women have donated 45% of all money contributed to Democratic women congressional candidates compared with 41% of all money contributed to Democratic men congressional candidates.
  • Women have donated 30% of all money contributed to Republican women congressional candidates compared with 28% of all money contributed to Republican men congressional candidates.
• Women candidates from historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups are more likely than white women candidates to attract racially diverse donors.
  • For example, 2% of the money raised by Democratic women U.S. House incumbents who are white came from Black donors compared with 8% of the funds contributed to Democratic U.S. House incumbent candidates who are Black women.

In addition, CAWP researchers have expanded their demographic analysis of donors to state candidates in the 10 key focus states for Women, Money, & Politics Watch 2024 (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington). This analysis shows similar findings to our donor analysis in congressional races: men out-give women in the total money contributed in all 10 focus states. However, in some of our 10 focus states, women constitute about half of unique contributors to state candidates. We have also updated our analysis of donor demographics for congressional candidates for our 10 key focus states.

 At the Donor Gaps: Demographics Analysis page of Women, Money, & Politics Watch 2024, users can interact with data visualizations and explore donor demographics (donor gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and marital status) by candidate characteristics (chamber, gender, party, and women’s race/ethnicity). The donor demographics data are from Catalist and campaign finance data are from OpenSecrets. The interactive data visualizations in Women, Money, & Politics Watch 2024 are powered by Graphicacy and are downloadable and shareable.

 Women, Money, & Politics Watch 2024 is part of the CAWP Women, Money, and Politics series, undertaken in collaboration with OpenSecrets; previous reports in the series can be found here. This research is made possible thanks to the generosity and commitment of Pivotal, a Melinda French Gates company. Follow Women, Money, & Politics Watch 2024 as it develops at the project landing page and find all CAWP data about women in election 2024 at Election Watch.