While suburban Democratic women donors vastly outnumber suburban Republican women donors, suburban women donors overall give the most total funding to Republican male candidates. This discrepancy exists largely because suburban Republican women make larger individual donations than their Democratic counterparts, according to analysis of Q1 FEC records by Electing Women Research.
It is also significant that even though there are more suburban women donors overall than suburban male donors overall, suburban women donors only give half of what suburban male donors give in the 2022 elections so far. This is despite women making up 51 percent of the population and 56 percent of voters.
Suburban women overall give most frequently to Democratic male candidates even though more total funding goes to Republican male candidates. Men overall are receiving the vast majority of total funds largely because male candidates outnumber women candidates 3 to 1.
However, when Democratic women donors give to candidates, they give the most to Democratic women candidates as compared to men when looking at the per candidate averages. The takeaway? Suburban women are likely to be more generous with Democratic women candidates than they are with Democratic men.
Suburban women donors gave $1.31 to Democratic women for every dollar they gave to Democratic men on average this cycle. And suburban women donors overall gave $1.94 to Democratic women for every dollar they gave to Republican men on average this cycle. For every dollar suburban women donors give Republican women, they give $1.91 to Democratic women. For every dollar suburban women donors give Republican women, they give $1.89 to Democratic women.
The suburbs are political battlegrounds. Election outcomes are increasingly correlated with population density above all other factors — the more neighbors a voter has, the more likely they are to vote Democratic, which puts suburbs in a unique position. And 40% of congressional districts are in the suburbs.
And suburban women — whose racial, ethnic and socioeconomic identities are varying and diverse — are the target of millions in campaign spending during elections.
