Old Money: Campaign Finance and Gerontocracy in the United States

The Political Science Department presents A Distinguished Lecture Series on Emerging Trends in 21st Century Domestic and Global Politics

Generously sponsored by Herbert H. Goldberger Lectureships Fund and Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs

April 29, 2024 at 4:30pm

Stephen Robert Hall/280 Brook Street with reception to follow

Old Money: Campaign Finance and Gerontocracy in the United States

Jake Grumbach, University of California, Berkeley

Compared to those of other countries, politicians in the United States are among the oldest. We investigate the role of money in politics in maintaining age inequality in political influence and office-holding. Using record linkage, we create a novel dataset that combines administrative data on the age of voters, donors, and candidates. Descriptively, we find that the median dollar in the U.S. campaign finance system comes from a 66-year-old donor—significantly older than the median voter, candidate, or elected official—and that older donors are much more ideologically conservative than younger donors. We then investigate whether candidate age matters to donors. Results from within-district and within-donor analyses suggest that individuals are more likely to donate and donate more to candidates closer to their age. We conclude with a discussion of how various campaign finance policies might affect the age distribution of money in politics.

Jake Grumbach is an associate professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He was previously an associate professor of political science at the University of Washington and a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton.

Jake studies the political economy of the United States. He is broadly interested in democracy, public policy, racial and economic inequality, American federalism, and statistical methods. Check out his publications and working papers. Jake’s book investigates the causes and consequences of the nationalization of state politics since the 1970s.