Lawyers gave more to Vice President
The Harris campaign received nearly $8.3 million in about 26,000 individual contributions from donors who listed “attorney” or “lawyer” as their occupation in the 10 days after
That’s nearly a third of the $26 million the Biden/Harris campaigns received from lawyers since April 2023, when Biden announced he was seeking re-election. The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign together have raised about $6.88 million from lawyers since the former president announced his candidacy on Nov. 15, 2022, according to FEC records. Trump’s campaign itself took in about $6,200 from lawyers in the first 10 days of his official candidacy.
Lawyers historically have given more—and in recent elections, much more—in individual contributions to Democrats than Republicans in presidential elections.
And lawyers have also given significantly more to Biden than Trump. The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic campaign combined raised about $36.83 million from lawyers since Biden announced his run for re-election on April 25, 2023.
That amounts to donors who listed attorney or lawyer as their occupation contributing about $5.35 to the Democratic ticket and national committee for every $1 contributed to the Republican ticket and national committee.
That is not an outlier. In 2012, Barack Obama and the DNC got $2.96 for every $1 Mitt Romney and the RNC got from lawyers. In 2016, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats got $17.74 for every $1 to Trump and the Republicans. And in 2020, lawyers gave $5.61 to Biden and the DNC for every $1 to Trump and the RNC. All of those figures are according to FEC records from when the candidate announced they were running through the end of July that election year.
“Now it seems hard to find any of the largest firms that are right-leaning,” said Derek Muller, election law professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. “It’s just been a kind of slow and steady drift over the last several presidential cycles.”
Biden on July 21 announced he was dropping out of the race, and endorsed Harris. That day, the campaign’s name was changed to “Harris for President.” Harris secured enough delegates by Aug. 2 to officially become the nominee.
In the 10 days after July 21, lawyers donated about $59,000 to the Trump campaign. For the entire month of July, lawyers donated about $1.2 million total to the Trump campaign and the RNC, the data shows. About 44% of the total amount the GOP committees raised in July from lawyers came in the week after the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania.
Money raised through joint fundraising committees, such as the Harris Victory Fund or the Trump 47 Committee, which are created to fundraise for candidates and committees, made up about half of all individual contributions from lawyers to the campaigns and the national committees.
Individuals can donate up to $3,300 per primary and general election to a specific campaign, like Harris or Trump, through the campaign itself or through a joint fundraising committee, under FEC rules.
The FEC requires that individual donors giving $200 or more list their employer and occupation. Under law, the committees are expected to attempt to get this information if it’s not provided.
About the Data:
The data for the 2024 presidential election was obtained by downloading Federal Election Commission itemized unique individual contributions to the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee, the Harris for President committee, and the Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc. committee for all election accounts from the beginning of the nominee’s candidacy through the end of July 2024 (the most recent fully processed data available as of publication.) The Biden for President committee was renamed the Harris for President committee on July 21, 2024, but it is the same committee and was treated as one committee.
The data was filtered for individuals who identified themselves as a “lawyer” or “attorney.” It includes earmarked contributions, joint fundraising contributions, and contributions designated to specific national party committee accounts. Joint fundraising contributions were identified as line items labeled as “transfers from other authorized committees.”
Historical contribution data was collected in the same way as the 2024 election data, utilizing contributions to a candidate and the respective national party committee from the time of the candidate’s candidacy announcement through July of the candidate’s election year. Totals do not reflect unitemized contributions and individuals who did not disclose their occupation.
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