Tom
sits right of most names
- Score
- +0.10
- More liberal than
- 18% of names
- Measured from
- 41,442 contributors
That ranking compares Tom 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.
Tom versus Thomas
People who go by Tom rather than Thomas sit 0.01 to the right of the full name. It is the same name. The difference is what people choose to be called.
How does Tom 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.
Federal contributions, 2016 to 2026. Donors skew older and wealthier than the country.
Actual party registration, which is a choice people make at the DMV rather than with a chequebook.
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.
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, Tom is 49% Democratic where that pool averages 55%, across 1,754 people. Worth a flag: among donors to 527 organisations, Tom tilts the other way. It is 73% Democratic there, but that pool averages 71% overall, so Tom 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 Tom in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves +0.15 that the demographics do not explain. The name still carries a real signal of its own, leaning Democratic.
Related spellings
Where Tom leans differently
| State | Democratic share of donors | Against that state’s own donors |
|---|---|---|
| CA | 58% | −0.30 |
| TX | 28% | −0.44 |
| FL | 31% | −0.29 |
| NY | 68% | −0.13 |
| WA | 63% | −0.09 |
| IL | 57% | −0.18 |
| PA | 55% | +0.01 |
| OH | 39% | −0.29 |
The right column compares Tom with other donors in the same state, so it is not just telling you which states are Democratic.