NamePolitics

Tommy

sits well right of most names

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
+0.37
More liberal than
3% of names
Measured from
5,447 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Tommy 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.

Tommy versus Thomas

People who go by Tommy rather than Thomas sit 0.28 to the right of the full name. It is the same name. The difference is what people choose to be called.

Tommy
liberalconservative
Thomas
liberalconservative

How does Tommy 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, nationwide3,328 people
27% Democratic73% Republican

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

Registered voters, North Carolina2,504 people
37% Democratic63% Republican

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

Registered voters, Florida3,053 people
48% Democratic52% 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, Ohio443 people
34% Democratic66% 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, Tommy is 48% Democratic where that pool averages 71%, across 224 people.

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 Tommy in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves −0.20 that the demographics do not explain. The name still carries a real signal of its own, leaning Republican.

Related spellings

Where Tommy leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
TX16%−1.14
CA52%−0.55
GA16%−1.29
FL30%−0.37
TN20%−0.81
NC28%−0.96
AL20%−0.34
VA27%−1.17

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

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