Few candidates have loyal small-dollar donor bases

About one-fifth of Democratic donors have given to multiple candidates, suggesting many haven’t settled on a favorite in a crowded field of presidential contenders.

More than 2.3 million people made “small-dollar” donations – $200 or less – to Democratic presidential candidates in the first half of the year.

Twenty-one donors gave to 20 or more candidates – nearly all of those running in the primaries – a sign of how the new Democratic National Committee debate qualifications for candidates have affected donors’ giving.

This is a significant shift from previous presidential primaries, when candidates would vie for maxed-out checks from wealthy donors to help them survive the lengthy and expensive primary fight. This year, campaigns must dominate the small-dollar game as well. Yet many of the candidates are tapping into similar donor pools whose loyalties may not reliably translate into votes.

The loyalty of donors varied widely across candidates. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had the most-loyal donors, with over 80 percent giving exclusively to him. Andrew Yang, a former tech entrepreneur, followed close behind.

Former housing and urban development secretary Julian Castro and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) had the least-loyal donors. For each, about 60 percent of their donors also gave to other candidates.

These findings come from a Washington Post analysis of small-dollar giving based on recently released ActBlue data, reported by the Federal Election Commission. ActBlue is an online fundraising platform that processes the majority of small-dollars donations for all major Democratic presidential candidates.

Among the five highest-polling candidates candidates, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) had the largest share of donors who also gave to someone else. Nearly a quarter of her donors – 61,000 – also gave to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Of these shared donors, thousands also gave to Sanders, Castro or South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg as a third donation.

[Listen on Post Reports: Anu Narayanswamy talks to the small-dollar donors shaping the Democratic primary.]

Warren and Sanders shared 60,000 donors, as Warren increasingly gains support from those who backed Sanders in 2016.

Donors to the five highest-polling candidates were most likely to also give to other high-polling candidates. But Sanders donors also gave at high rates to Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii). She was more popular among Sanders donors than any other Democratic candidates besides Warren.

In 2016, Gabbard stepped down as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee to endorse Sanders, something his supporters have not forgotten. In most cases, as seen below, shared donors gave more money to Sanders.

For the biggest donor overlaps, more people generally gave a greater contribution to the higher-polling candidate. But that was not the case for donors who gave to Buttigieg and Harris, where slightly more gave a greater donation to Buttigieg.

Similarly, more shared donors gave a higher contribution to Harris than former vice president Joe Biden. Her donations from Biden donors spiked after their debate debut, where Harris challenged Biden’s civil rights record.