Individual and PAC Giving to Women Candidates

Individual and PAC Giving to Women Candidates is part of a collaborative project between the Center for Responsive Politics, Common Cause and Representation2020.

With the support of a Network Grant from the Democracy Fund, Representation2020 has teamed up with the Center for Responsive Politics and the Common Cause Education Fund to research PAC and donor giving to male and female candidates and to devise strategies to challenge them to set targets for the percentage — or overall amount — that they give to women candidates. The following report is designed to create greater transparency on how political giving affects the universe of viable candidates, to draw attention to the key gatekeeper role played by major campaign funders and to design strategies that encourage donors, PACs, political parties and others to reexamine how and when they give to female candidates.

This collaborative project includes:

  • Data analysis of PAC and donor contributions;
  • Qualitative interviews with PAC leadership;
  • Outreach to individual donors;
  • Consultation with a politically diverse group of experts.