NamePolitics

Sue

sits middle of the pack

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
−0.14
More liberal than
40% of names
Measured from
16,512 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Sue 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.

Sue versus Susan

People who go by Sue rather than Susan sit 0.26 to the right of the full name. It is the same name. The difference is what people choose to be called.

Sue
liberalconservative
Susan
liberalconservative

How does Sue 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, nationwide11,771 people
57% Democratic43% Republican

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

Registered voters, North Carolina2,346 people
40% Democratic60% Republican

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

Registered voters, Florida4,022 people
39% Democratic61% 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, Ohio1,960 people
37% Democratic63% 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, Sue is 57% Democratic where that pool averages 55%, across 738 people. Worth a flag: among donors to 527 organisations, Sue tilts the other way. It is 70% Democratic there, but that pool averages 71% overall, so Sue sits right of its centre while the federal records put it left of theirs.

Worth noticing: donors named Sue lean Democratic while registered voters named Sue 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 Sue in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves −0.03 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 Sue leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA69%+0.18
TX34%−0.17
FL42%+0.17
WA69%+0.20
OH60%+0.56
NY76%+0.26
CO58%−0.00
MI60%+0.36

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

Look up another name