Harris donors are younger and less partisan than Biden’s

In her first six weeks on top of the Democratic presidential ticket, Kamala Harris surpassed the total number of campaign contributors that President Joe Biden had acquired in his 15 months of campaigning. Harris has received contributions from 3.8 million individual donors, more than 70 percent of whom were unique to her and did not donate to Biden. As the vice president rides a wave of enthusiasm, seen in the large crowds at her rallies and the flood of new volunteers who have signed up to help the campaign, she has attracted more young donors and more donors in critical swing states.

Here’s a look at how her donors differ from those that gave to Biden.

Age

Harris has made major gains in lifting the Democrats’ polling margin over former president Donald Trump among voters under 40, compared with Biden’s margin during his matchup with Trump. The buzz among younger voters is also reflected in her donor base. The median age of a unique Harris donor is 58, compared to 67 for Biden donors, among the 70 percent of donors whom The Washington Post matched to their voter registration records. Her donors this year are younger than those who supported her when she ran for president in 2019.

Harris has a particular edge among the youngest voters: 27 percent of Harris’s donors are under 45, which is more than double the 11 percent of Biden’s donors. But Harris has much older donors compared with most of her Democratic primary opponents in 2020: 63 percent of Bernie Sanders’s donors in 2020 were under 45, over twice Harris’s proportion this year.

Gender

Harris’s unique donor base is 16 percent women under 45, among donors that could be matched with their voter registration records, tripling the percentage that Biden held within that group. Although both were supported predominantly by women — around 61 percent of their donors — Harris has gathered more support from young women.

In 2020, Harris had almost the highest percentage of women donors of any major candidate, with 64 percent of her donors being female. Elizabeth Warren led the pack at 65 percent; Biden sat at 61 percent; and Sanders pulled in just 46 percent of his support from female donors.

Geography

Harris has more uniquedonors than Biden in every state but Delaware. Across the swing states, she has nearly twice as many donors as him.

And in several swing states, she has expanded upon his appeal to voters who aren’t registered Democrats. In Nevada, for instance, 20 percent of donors who gave only to Harris were not registered Democrats, compared to 15 percent for Biden. In Arizona, 22 percent were not registered Democrats, compared to 18 percent for Biden. Their figures were closer in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and partisan registration data was not available in Michigan, Wisconsin or Georgia.

In 80 percent of Zip codes in swing states, Harris had more donors than Biden. In general, her donor pool grew the most in major cities and their suburbs, while lagging in rural counties.

In Georgia, Harris has 103,000 total donors, more than twice Biden’s 48,000. But her numbers grew the most in Atlanta and its suburbs, and she also saw bumpsin smaller cities such as Macon and Savannah.

Donations in North Carolina showed a similar pattern: Harris had around 118,000 total donors to Biden’s 60,000 and racked up support in the Research Triangle, consisting of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, alongside other major North Carolina metros.

Politics

About 58 percent of donors who gave only to Harriswere registered Democrats, a figure slightly lower than Biden’s 62 percent in 2024, a Post analysis of donors matched to voter registration data shows. Slightly more than 10 percent of uniqueHarris donors this year were voters not registered with either major party, above all the 2020 Democrats except Sanders and Andrew Yang, while 3 percent were registered Republicans, a ratio higher than any candidate except Yang and now-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

This count reflects only the 36 states that collect partisan identification.

Maeve Reston contributed to this report.

Methodology

The Post analyzed Federal Election Commission filings from the online Democratic fundraising group ActBlue. For analysis of Biden’s and Harris’s 2024 campaigns, The Post focused on donations earmarked to Biden for President, Biden Action Fund and Biden Victory Fund from April 25, 2023, through July 21, 2024, and those directed at Harris for President, Harris Action Fund and Harris Victory Fund since then. For analysis of the 2020 primary, The Post focused on donations via ActBlue to select candidates between Jan. 1, 2019, and April 30, 2020. Unique donors were determined based on a combination of first name, last name and Zip code.

Data on donors’ age, gender and political party was found by matching FEC donation records to statewide voter registration records from L2, based on first and last name, Zip code and state. About 70 percent of both Harris and Biden donors could be matched to a voter registration record. For 2020 donors, L2 data from the fourth quarter of 2020 was used, and about 60 percent of donors could be matched to a voter registration record. The numbers reflected here are estimates based on these matches.