The Daily Orange is a nonprofit newsroom that receives no funding from Syracuse University. Consider donating today to support our mission.

Syracuse University employees overwhelmingly donated to Democratic candidates ahead of the 2020 general election, data from the Federal Election Commission shows.

Over 90% of SU employees’ donations for the 2019-20 election cycle went toward Democratic candidates or committees, while roughly 6% went to Rebublican candidates or committees.

The SU employees included in the data, which spans from food service workers and faculty to former deans and administrators, gave over $351,000 through more than 11,550 individual donations in the 2019-20 election cycle.

Katie Marcy | Digital Design Director

Between presidential candidates, SU employees donated over 17 times more to former Vice President Joe Biden than to President Donald Trump. Biden is an alumnus of SU’s College of Law.

Katie Marcy| Digital Design Director

SU employees’ donations also showed a clear preference for Democratic challenger Dana Balter in the race for New York’s 24th Congressional District. Employees donated over 20 times more to Balter than to incumbent Rep. John Katko (R-Camillus), who received only two individual donations from SU employees totaling $1,250.

Francis Conole, a Democratic primary candidate for NY-24 who lost to Dana Balter in June, also took in 52 individual contributions from SU employees, which totalled over $12,000.

Katie Marcy| Digital Design Director

The largest share of donations from SU employees for both Democratic and Republican candidates went to ActBlue and WinRed, fundraising platforms both parties use to generate small, individual donations, often amounting to just a few dollars per contribution. SU employees donated over 9,840 times to ActBlue alone, which makes up roughly 85% of all individual donations.

Steven White, an assistant professor of political science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said platforms like ActBlue and WinRed reflect efforts by both parties to centralize and streamline the donations process.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign received the largest number of individual donations out of all candidates to whom SU employees contributed. Sanders, whose campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination prided itself on generating large numbers of small donors, received an average of about $25 per contribution from SU employees. Biden averaged $175.

Trump, meanwhile, averaged about $42 per donation. He received all but six of his 52 contributions from SU employees from a part-time instructor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The data also revealed information about the political leanings of some high-ranking university officials.

Craig Boise, dean of the College of Law, donated to Joe Biden and Francis Conole, while Douglas Biklen, dean emeritus of the School of Education, contributed to Sen. Kamala Harris. Liz Liddy, former dean of the School of Information Studies, gave to multiple progressive-leaning PACs.

SU employees’ tendency to donate to Democratic candidates “reflects the academic environment” of the university, said Arthur Flowers, an emeritus associate professor of English. Flowers made multiple contributions to Kamala Harris’ campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination and later donated to Biden when he “became a contender.”

White cautioned that campaign donations aren’t necessarily reflective of the university’s political leanings as a whole.

Of the people who go to the polls on Election Day, very few of them will actually give money to the candidates they are voting for, White said.

“Donations data is by its nature not representative,” White said. “You’ll learn something from looking at donations data about the political leanings of the most politically engaged people, particularly people who have enough money to make donations.”

SU employees’ tendency to contribute to Democratic candidates and political action committees is consistent with a shift in college-educated voters toward progressive policies and platforms in the last 50 years, White said. People with graduate degrees, including masters’ and doctoral degrees, are especially likely to support progressive policies championed by Democrats, he said.

President Donald Trump’s criticism of higher education has widened this gap, White said.

“In the modern era, there’s just such an intense realignment where people who have graduated from college are just much more Democratic than they were a few generations ago,” White said.

Áron Tóbiás, an assistant professor of economics, has contributed to both Biden’s and Harris’ presidential campaigns. He also donated to what he saw as several key congressional races across the country.

“I was looking out for those candidates both on the presidential level and on the House level and the Senate level who had a shot of being elected in a contested race,” Tóbiás said. “I wanted to make sure my donations were more strategic.”

Katie Marcy| Digital Design Director

It would be reasonable to say a substantial percentage of SU faculty and staff members side with the Democratic Party, Tóbiás said.

But not all SU donors who supported Democrative candidates identified as progressives. One of the university’s larger contributors to political campaigns, former Secretary of the Navy and NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe, has served under several Republican presidents.

O’Keefe, a University Professor in the Maxwell School, contributed over $2,000 to Biden. He is part of National Security Leaders for Biden, a coalition of military leaders and civilian national security officials who have endorsed Biden for president.

He also donated to Liz Cheney, the Repubican incumbent for Wyoming’s single congressional district; Donna Shalala, an incumbent Democratic congresswoman representing Florida’s 27th Congressional District; and Dan Sullivan, the incumbent Republican senator in a Senate race in Alaska. He said he made his donations based on the candidates’ track records and their ability to reach across the aisle to push forward an agenda.

Despite having served under Republican lawmakers for the majority of his career, O’Keefe said he had no difficulty crossing party lines to endorse Biden.

“Biden’s policies, I have differences about, but I can’t debate his integrity in pursuing those particular views,” O’Keefe said. “And I can’t say the same for the incumbent.”

Published on November 2, 2020 at 11:44 pm

Contact Chris: cjhippen@syr.edu