White Democratic candidates aren't doing so hot with non-white donors.
Scratch that, no 2020 candidates have a very big portion of their donations coming from people of color. Despite the Democratic party showing increasing numbers of minority support, an analysis of campaign finance data from Sludge and Data for Progress reveals that of donors who gave $200 or more, just one candidate racked up even a third of their donations from non-white supporters.
Donations of less than $200 don't have to be provided to the Federal Election Commission, so people who gave less aren't necessarily reflected in campaign finance data. Still, of the data available, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) has the highest portion of donations from people of color, at 33.4%. The vast majority of that segment came from Asian donors, who made up 32% of Gabbard's overall donor base. Andrew Yang is next with 33.1% of his donors being non-white, and 29.3% Asian donors overall. Julián Castro has 31.6% non-white voters, largely thanks to 26.9% of his donations coming from Latino backers.
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There's a large jump before we arrive at Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who got 7.5% of her donations from self-described African-American voters. Still, just 14.9% of her donors were non-white, giving a total of $820,776. Closely behind are New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
At the other end of the spectrum, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg got the most money from white donors, at $6,950,825. Sludge couldn't find a single African-American donor giving over $200 to former Rep. John Delaney, while Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) had just one African-American donor and six non-white donors overall.
Find more donor analysis at Sludge and Data for Progress.
