Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Political Science

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Political Science

Advisor/Mentor

Sebold, Karen

Committee Member

Dowdle, Andrew

Second Committee Member

Davidson, Fiona

Abstract

Political polarization has grown more prevalent in the United States political atmosphere in recent years (Pew Research Center 2017). While political polarization is a prevalent topic of discussion, there is a limited understanding of exactly how polarization affects various aspects of political elections, such as the financing of campaigns. This research aims to explore the relationships between the ideological scores of U.S. Senate candidates and the varying types of campaign funding that they received, such as individual contributions, independent expenditures, PAC contributions, and party contributions. A data analysis was conducted utilizing Stanford University’s Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections to analyze the fundraising data of candidates and the recipient's composite ideological score to determine the level of extremism of candidates. This analysis investigated the Democratic senatorial candidates in the election cycles from 2012 to 2020 to determine whether there is a relationship between campaign finance and candidate extremism. Based on the current literature on the topic establishing relationships between these variables, I hypothesized that the more ideologically extreme Democrat candidates would receive a more significant amount of funding from individual donors and independent expenditures from ideological groups. Meanwhile, the moderate candidates would rely more on contributions from their political party and PACs.

Keywords

Political Science; Campaign Finance; Political Polarization; Extreme Candidates; US Senate; Citizens United v. FEC (2011)

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