Since the start of 2024, Northwestern employees have contributed at least $720,000 to political campaigns and committees ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
An analysis of over 7,900 FEC filings revealed a strong lean toward Democratic candidates among University employees. At least 98% of the total number of employee donations went to Democratic candidates, tallying more than $660,000.
The data collection only sampled staff, faculty members and administrators who listed “Northwestern University” as their employer from Jan. 1 to Oct. 29.
The analysis also found that employees overwhelmingly support Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for president with more than $200,000 in direct donations. In comparison, former President Donald Trump’s campaign received about $2,700 in direct donations.
This placed NU among the top 2% of organizations with employees that collectively contributed the most money to candidates, party committees and other political action committees, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying.
NU, however, ranks among the top 20% of organizations that have expended money in lobbying efforts, according to OpenSecrets.
Democratic campaign platforms, including ActBlue, Harris Victory Fund and Harris for President were among the top recipients of donations for NU employees.
ActBlue, a nonprofit fundraising platform and PAC used for Democratic campaigns, notched over 6,000 individual donations from NU affiliates. The Republican fundraising platform WinRed drew about $2,500 in donations.
Prominent Illinois politicians including Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Naperville) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) also chalked up over 30 unique donations.
The results from the analysis also largely fall in line with recent student voting patterns on campus too.
In The Daily’s inaugural campus poll released earlier this month, 79% of respondents identified as either “very liberal” or “somewhat liberal,” compared to only 6.6% who identify as “very conservative” or “somewhat conservative.”
And nearly 91.7% of students said they would vote for Harris.
The poll also found that most students consider themselves to be politically engaged. Four out of five respondents — 80.2% — said they were either “somewhat political” or “very political,” with 25.7% being “very political.”
One of the top University affiliates to donate to political candidates is still Pat Ryan (Kellogg ’59) — who, with his wife Shirley Ryan (Weinberg ’61), made the largest donation in University history to redevelop Ryan Field.
This year, Pat Ryan has already doled out over hundreds of thousands of dollars to various Republican candidates’ campaign committees.
Election Day in the U.S. will fall on Nov. 5 this year.
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