Biden Draws Bulk of Fundraising Support from Wealthiest Zip Codes
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has received the bulk of his fundraising support from the country’s wealthiest ZIP codes, a new report found.
A New York Times analysis of more than 25 million donations from April 1 to October 14 found that the former vice president overwhelmingly drew financial support from the wealthiest and most educated ZIP codes in the country, particularly from the two coasts.
Biden has outraised Trump nearly every day of the last two months, much of which has been the result of the Democrat’s ability to best Trump in ZIP codes with a median household income of at least $100,000: there Biden has raised $486 million to Trump’s $167 million. Donation amounts were far closer in the rest of the country.
In ZIP codes that exceeded the median household income in the U.S. — $68,703 — Biden outraised Trump by $389.1 million. However, Trump beat Biden by $53.4 million in ZIP codes below that level.
Similarly, Biden has held a fundraising advantage in the most educated parts of the country, with ZIP codes where at least 65 percent of people had graduated from college — accounting for just over 1,000 of nearly 32,000 ZIP codes reporting donations — donating $478 million to the former vice president and $104 million to Trump.
In ZIP codes below that education level the president led by nearly $40 million.
In total, Biden raised $1.07 billion while Trump raised $734 billion over the last six months in the 32,000 most populous ZIP codes, according to the Times, with Biden’s financial advantage coming from California, New York, Massachusetts and Washington.
Twenty-eight states donated more to Trump, who drew his greatest support in Texas, compared to 22 supporting Biden in the last six months.
The paper’s analysis of $1.8 billion donated by 7.6 million people since April combined Federal Election Commission filings from both campaigns, the campaign’s joint operations with the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee and data from from the donation-processing sites WinRed and ActBlue. While it did not include direct donations to the parties themselves, the analysis covered more than 90 percent of contributions to Trump, Biden and the committees directly linked to them.
The Times warns its analysis is “not a perfect snapshot” as Trump was collecting money from donors for months before Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
