A new study has found that Vermont men out-donated Vermont women to state legislative races in 2020, though Vermont’s donor gender gap is less extreme than the nationwide average.
In a study of nationwide campaign finance data published last week, Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics found that for 2020 legislative races, American women generally voted in higher numbers than men, but men donated money to legislative candidates more often and in greater sums than women by a 2:1 ratio.
In Vermont, men still out-donated women, but to a lesser extent than the national average. Between 37% and 42% of campaign donors in the state were women.
Nationwide in 2020, 32% of campaign donations to major-party legislative candidates came from women and 68% came from men.
“This means that men out-gave women 2:1 in all state legislative contests, regardless of the gender composition of candidates, whether both parties competed in the election, or the type of race,” the study said. “To the extent that campaign contributions can impact state legislative agendas and public policies, women are not exercising equal voice in state legislative politics.”
Divided by party, donations to Democratic candidates in Vermont followed the same nationwide pattern, garnering greater financial support from men than women. But Republican candidates in Vermont bucked the national trend, with women donors’ average contribution higher than men’s.
Vermont women contributed an average of $255 to Democratic legislative candidates in 2020, while men contributed an average of $293, according to the study. For Republican candidates, Vermont women contributed an average of $472, compared to men’s average of $338 — making for the greatest female-to-male contributor ratio within one party in the country.
It’s important to note that the study reported the average campaign contribution by state, party and gender. That means a relatively small number of major donors could skew the average contribution up.
Paul Dame, the Vermont Republican Party’s newly elected chair, said in an interview Friday that he thinks the study’s findings were consistent with what he sees as chair of the party, and who he sees getting involved.
“I think of who comes to party fundraisers, even who our state officers are,” he said. “Republicans for several years now have had a lot of strong women and involved women … so there’s a lot of opportunities for women in the party.”
Asked if the state party is intentionally seeking to recruit female donors and workers, Dame said he thinks “it’s more of an organic thing,” a product of women leading the party in top leadership positions and thereby attracting women to come to campaign events and get involved in the party.
On the left, party spokesperson Asha Carroll said the Vermont Democratic Party is intentionally seeking women to get involved with the party and to run for office. Upon seeing the Rutgers study, she said her first thought was that “more Democratic women need to run for office because representation matters.”
“We also know that when women run, they win,” Carroll said in an interview. “And judging by the Rutgers study, it’s clear that if we want to turn out more women donors, we need to put forward strong women candidates.”
According to the study, women were more likely to donate in 2020 to state legislative races in which there was at least one female candidate. As of this year, 42.2% of Vermont state legislators are women. By comparison, women make up 30.8% of state legislative seats nationwide.
