Out-of-State Contributions Provide House Candidates with a Competitive Edge

• In Event: Campaign Finance

Abstract

Increasingly House incumbents rely upon out of state contributions from donors to fund their campaigns (Baker 2016). Simultaneously, their reliance upon small donor contributions has also declined (Magleby, Goodlife, and Olsen 2018). This raises the question of whether out of state donors tend to be larger contributors than more local donors and whether this source of revenue provides candidates with a competitive edge in their contests. Using campaign finance data from the National Institute for Money in State Politics 2010-2016, I examine both the fundraising and electoral impacts of House candidates’ reliance upon these funds using both matching analyses and traditional regression models. The initial results suggest more out-of-state donors provide the maximum legal contribution than in-state donors. Candidates who disproportionately rely upon this income as a source of revenue have higher vote margins and greater competitiveness ranking gains than candidates who rely upon other sources of money—this is particularly true for challengers.

Author

• Anne E. Baker, Santa Clara University