Small-dollar fundraising is a having a real moment in American politics as the Democratic presidential primary heats up. The ability to post large small-dollar fundraising totals as Democratic hopefuls roll out their campaigns has become an early proxy for viability in a large field of candidates.
Following a midterm year that saw unprecedented amounts of money raised by Congressional candidates across the country, expect that trend to continue all the way down the ballot as 2020 takes shape.
The ability to raise money tops the list of what political professionals are looking for in candidates, according to the 2019 C&E/PSB Research State of the Campaign Industry Survey.
And while seeking out candidates with the ability to post sizable fundraising totals and run well-funded campaigns certainly isn’t new, it’s poised to take on added prominence much earlier in the campaign calendar now that candidates are becoming less reliant on big-donor, per-plate fundraisers.
Our survey asked political professionals what they rate as the most important factors when choosing which clients to take on. Overall, 54% of political professionals said the client’s ability to “raise money and pay bills” is “very important” when considering taking on a race or a client. A full 92% of professionals rated it either “very important” or “somewhat important.”
The financial consideration was followed closely by “the political beliefs of the candidate,” which 46% of political professionals rated as “very important” when weighing whether to take on a race.
Only 18% of professionals in our survey said a client’s chance of winning their race is a “very important” consideration.
Results for the survey are based on online interviews with 408 professional political consultants conducted by PSB Research from Jan 10, 2019 to February 2, 2019. The survey has an estimated margin of error of +/- 4.85 percent.
As for what political professionals think motivates their peers in the industry: money tops the list in our survey with 27% of professionals saying it’s what “most” motivates fellow consultants. That’s followed closely by “political beliefs” at 25%, the “thrill of competition” at 23% and “political power and influence” at 19%.
One key partisan difference on this question: consultants at Democratic-leaning firms are 23 percentage points more likely to say “political beliefs” motivate their peers in the industry than are consultants at Republican firms (14% to 37%).