Overwhelming Majority of Political Donations by University Presidents go to Democrats

Overwhelming Majority of Political Donations by University Presidents go to Democrats

No surprises here. There is a total lack of political balance in higher education.

The College Fix reports:

Democrats dominate donations by top university presidents

About 93 percent of top-ranked U.S. universities’ presidents who donated to political campaigns gave to Democrats, according to a College Fix analysis of federal and state political campaign donation data.

Among the top 25 presidents listed by U.S. News World & Report, 10 did not have appear to have donated, according to records.

But of the 15 presidents that The Fix found data on, 14 gave to Democrats, including 12 who gave exclusively and two who gave primarily to Democrats but also donated smaller amounts to Republicans;  only one donated only to Republicans. That amounts to about 93 percent donating to Democratic campaigns, according to the analysis.

Information for the analysis came from the Federal Election Commission and the nonpartisan campaign research group Open Secrets, as well as individual state government campaign finance reports. Searches were conducted using the individuals’ names, including maiden and middle names, and current and past employers.

The Fix’s analysis includes donations records from 2002 to 2024. Donations were classified according to the listed party of the candidate or campaign.

The presidents included in the analysis were based on the top universities listed in U. S. News and World Report’s Best National University Rankings, as they were ranked in June.

Chance Layton, spokesperson for the National Association of Scholars, told The Fix in a phone interview Tuesday the analysis is consistent with their research findings showing professors in the liberal arts and humanities also tend to skew strongly left politically.

“The numbers do not surprise me whatsoever, it’s just a further piece of evidence that shows the lack of diversity on college campuses,” Layton said.

And personal politics do affect how universities are run, he said, pointing to administrations “run amuck” with “hard-core leftist policies” that push out conservative and moderate scholars with things like diversity statements in hiring practices.

The largest set of donations came from Brown University President Christina Paxson, who collectively gave $26,750 to Democrat candidates and fundraising platforms, The Fix found.

Her largest individual donation went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the amount of $15,000 in 2014, according to FEC data. Paxson also donated to Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Kerry.

The second largest came from Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber, who gave $19,550 to various Democratic congressional candidates’ campaigns, and $3,500 to former President Obama.

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