We at Accuracy in Academia conducted a study on the political contributions of employees of colleges and universities of the past year and discovered, not to our surprise, that college administrators and professors donate far more to Democrat and liberal causes, campaigns and candidates than Republican or conservative ones.
Over 8 out of 10 professors and administrators have contributed to Democratic candidates, causes, organizations and PACs in 2013, with the majority of these donations (60 donors totaling $50,850) going to Democratic candidate Val Arkoosh. Arkoosh is running as a Democrat in Pennsylvania in the 13th district, which covers northeastern Philadelphia.
Other top earners of professors’ donations? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (35 donors contributing $36,694), DNC Services Corp. (i.e. the Democratic National Committee) with $29,600 from 40 donors and Cory Booker ($22,250 donated by 9 professors and administrators). These top earners total 26% of all Democratic donations by university professors and administrators.
The highest earning PAC? Americans for Responsible Solutions, which is ex-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ PAC whose goal is to impose background checks and stricter gun control laws on Americans. Giffords’ PAC received $20,313 from 44 donors.
A little over 1 out of 10 professors and administrators donated to Republican and conservative causes, organizations or PACs. The donations were split among a variety of candidates and organizations, ranging from Massachusetts’ U.S. Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez, Maine’s liberal Susan Collins to the Republican National Committee (RNC).
The highest number of contributions went to the Republican Party of Tennessee (a single $10,000 donation). The next highest recipient was Andy Harris, the sole Republican in the Maryland congressional delegation with $7,250 from 16 donors.
The total number of Democratic donors was 710 compared to only 139 for the Republicans, with $539,228 in donations going to the Democrats and $103,003 going to the Republicans.
After looking at the data, it is clear which side academia’s true sentiments and political thoughts truly lie, and that is with the liberals and Democratic Party.
Spencer Irvine is a staff writer at Accuracy in Academia.
AJC intern Joseph Daly contributed to the research and analysis.
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