New paper with Ryan Mundy on the advantage of *candidate* wealth in US elections. Our rich Congress comes from rich candidates: they raise far more early money and especially more large-dollar donations, scare off competitors, and are more likely to be elected. Link below. @ryanmundy.bsky.social - ThreadSky

daniellethomsen.bsky.social • 50 days ago

New paper with Ryan Mundy on the advantage of *candidate* wealth in US elections. Our rich Congress comes from rich candidates: they raise far more early money and especially more large-dollar donations, scare off competitors, and are more likely to be elected. Link below. @ryanmundy.bsky.social

Comments

criminallyvu1gar.bsky.social•50 days ago

Then they cheat the stock market when in office

puffpuffnopizazz.bsky.social•49 days ago

I mean, good work getting it in a defined, actually researched paper… but, uh, duh?

This is so unsurprising that I’m legitimately more surprised that you guys may be breaking new ground by publishing it.

daniellethomsen.bsky.social•49 days ago

Scholars have typically studied fundraising as an IV (effects of money), but we know little about money as a DV (who raises money and esp early money). We are the first to collect data on *candidate* wealth (took forever) and show these compounding effects of wealth across the cycle.

daniellethomsen.bsky.social•49 days ago

We also address a prominent alternative explanation that party donors drive early fundraising support. We demonstrate that max-out donors give 11 times more than party donors and are an entirely different subset of donors. More on contributions and differences from prior work in the paper too.

puffpuffnopizazz.bsky.social•49 days ago

Ma’am I’m not attacking your work at all, but you’re never going to catch me being surprised that rich candidates are more successful. The fact is that while you DID do something with a new way of looking at it, the conclusion is still hilariously unsurprising.