Frequent campaign donors prefer congressional candidates who toe the party line to those who promote extreme views or make bipartisan appeals, according to a new study co-authored by Yale political scientist and CSAP associate director Gregory Huber.
The study, published in the June 2020 issue of the journal Political Behavior, casts doubt on a widely held assumption that frequent donors push candidates to adopt increasingly extreme policy positions. Huber and co-author Andrew Gooch, former CSAP postdoctoral associate and current assistant professor of political science at LaSalle University, found that individuals who regularly donate to congressional campaigns are less likely to support candidates who deviate from their party’s norms in any ideological direction.