NamePolitics

Nicholas

sits middle of the pack

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
−0.20
More liberal than
47% of names
Measured from
15,980 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Nicholas 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.

Nicholas versus Nick

People who go by Nick rather than Nicholas sit 0.12 to the right of the full name. It is the same name. The difference is what people choose to be called.

Nicholas
liberalconservative
Nick
liberalconservative

How does Nicholas 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, nationwide14,584 people
60% Democratic40% Republican

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

Registered voters, North Carolina10,454 people
36% Democratic64% Republican

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

Registered voters, Florida25,225 people
38% Democratic62% 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, Ohio5,760 people
40% Democratic60% Republican

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

Other donor records point the same way. Among donors to 527 organisations, Nicholas is 82% Democratic where that pool averages 71%, across 1,494 people. Among Washington state and local donors, Nicholas is 64% Democratic where that pool averages 55%, across 462 people.

Worth noticing: donors named Nicholas lean Democratic while registered voters named Nicholas 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 Nicholas in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves +0.06 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 Nicholas leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA75%+0.49
NY64%−0.31
FL33%−0.20
MA77%−0.02
PA51%−0.14
TX52%+0.60
NJ46%−0.56
IL65%+0.19

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

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