The politics of the super-rich, in one chart
When it comes to politics, where does the 1 percent park its cash? Larry Bartels flags a recent study by political scientist Adam Bonica, who analyzed the campaign contributions of Forbes’ 400 richest Americans — who’ve given $460 million since 1979 — and mapped their donations to over 50,000 candidates on a liberal to conservative scale:
(Adam Bonica)
As Bartels notes, the super-rich were most likely to give to Republicans (that’s the grey section above), but not to the most ideologically extreme candidates. A good chunk of the Forbes 400 gave to both parties, occupying the ideological middle. Democrats received significantly less support from the super-rich, but the donations still piled up.
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