NamePolitics

Nick

sits right of most names

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
−0.08
More liberal than
35% of names
Measured from
7,930 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Nick 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.

Nick versus Nicholas

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.

Nick
liberalconservative
Nicholas
liberalconservative

How does Nick 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, nationwide6,842 people
56% Democratic44% Republican

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

Registered voters, North Carolina223 people
39% Democratic61% Republican

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

Registered voters, Florida932 people
42% Democratic58% 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, Ohio392 people
31% Democratic69% 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 donors to 527 organisations, Nick is 84% Democratic where that pool averages 71%, across 781 people. Worth a flag: among Washington state and local donors, Nick tilts the other way. It is 48% Democratic there, but that pool averages 55% overall, so Nick sits right of its centre while the federal records put it left of theirs.

Worth noticing: donors named Nick lean Democratic while registered voters named Nick 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 Nick in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves +0.07 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 Nick leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA69%+0.21
NY66%−0.24
TX46%+0.35
FL32%−0.26
IL62%+0.05
WA67%+0.09
OH47%+0.02
PA48%−0.24

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

Look up another name