NamePolitics

Cole

sits right of most names

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
+0.00
More liberal than
27% of names
Measured from
649 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Cole 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.

How does Cole 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, nationwide857 people
57% Democratic43% Republican

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

Registered voters, North Carolina1,214 people
24% Democratic76% Republican

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

Registered voters, Florida1,715 people
24% Democratic76% 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, Ohio441 people
34% Democratic66% Republican

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

Worth noticing: donors named Cole lean Democratic while registered voters named Cole 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 Cole in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves −0.22 that the demographics do not explain. The name still carries a real signal of its own, leaning Republican.

Where Cole leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA71%+0.30
TX36%−0.07
NY93%+1.72
WA70%+0.21
FL51%+0.54

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

Look up another name