NamePolitics

Carol

sits middle of the pack

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
−0.26
More liberal than
54% of names
Measured from
62,390 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Carol with other names. The typical name scores −0.22, because people who donate to campaigns lean left as a group, so a name can sit left of zero and still be middle of the pack. The party splits below use a different yardstick again: each one is measured against an even fifty-fifty.

DIME contributor ideal points, 1979-2014. Negative is liberal, positive conservative.

Carol versus Carole

People who go by Carole rather than Carol sit 0.04 to the left of the full name. It is the same name. The difference is what people choose to be called.

Carol
liberalconservative
Carole
liberalconservative

How does Carol compare with someone else's name?

Party, by population

Different groups of people, measured in different ways. They do not always agree, and the disagreement is usually the interesting part.

Campaign donors, nationwide46,801 people
56% Democratic44% Republican

Federal contributions, 2016 to 2026. Donors skew older and wealthier than the country.

Registered voters, North Carolina10,831 people
45% Democratic55% Republican

Actual party registration, which is a choice people make at the DMV rather than with a chequebook.

Registered voters, Florida35,363 people
43% Democratic57% Republican

Party registration again, in a state with a very different mix of people. Florida and North Carolina agree on which way a name leans 88% of the time.

Primary voters, Ohio11,780 people
42% Democratic58% Republican

Ohio has no party registration, so this is the last primary ballot each voter chose to pull.

Another set of donor records points the same way. Among Washington state and local donors, Carol is 59% Democratic where that pool averages 55%, across 2,197 people.

Worth noticing: donors named Carol lean Democratic while registered voters named Carol lean Republican. This happens for about a quarter of names, and it is why this page refuses to give you a single number.

Is it the name, or the people who have it?

Names carry age, sex and ethnicity, and those predict politics on their own. Comparing every Carol in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves +0.02 that the demographics do not explain. For this name, almost nothing survives: the name is standing in for who happens to carry it.

Related spellings

Where Carol leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA64%−0.04
FL42%+0.14
TX39%+0.04
NY72%+0.05
PA58%+0.16
WA64%−0.03
OH52%+0.22
MI57%+0.22

The right column compares Carol with other donors in the same state, so it is not just telling you which states are Democratic.

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