NamePolitics

Dan

sits right of most names

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
+0.12
More liberal than
17% of names
Measured from
27,334 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Dan 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.

Dan versus Daniel

People who go by Dan rather than Daniel sit 0.21 to the right of the full name. It is the same name. The difference is what people choose to be called.

Dan
liberalconservative
Daniel
liberalconservative

How does Dan 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, nationwide19,985 people
48% Democratic52% Republican

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

Registered voters, North Carolina626 people
39% Democratic61% Republican

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

Registered voters, Florida1,804 people
40% Democratic60% 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, Ohio728 people
28% Democratic72% 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, Dan is 44% Democratic where that pool averages 55%, across 1,388 people. Worth a flag: among donors to 527 organisations, Dan tilts the other way. It is 74% Democratic there, but that pool averages 71% overall, so Dan sits left of its centre while the federal records put it right of theirs.

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 Dan in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves +0.01 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 Dan leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA60%−0.21
TX27%−0.48
FL32%−0.27
NY77%+0.31
WA57%−0.36
IL56%−0.19
OH42%−0.17
MI43%−0.35

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

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