When Do Campaign Donors Reject Extremists? Evidence from the US Foreclosure Crisis.

Individual campaign donors offer reliable support for extremists in US politics. Can such support waiver during economic crises, which often bolster extremists' popular appeals? Linking nationwide campaign finance and real estate transactions, I examine how the foreclosure crisis affected Republican donors' willingness to donate to Tea Party candidates, an insurgent right-wing faction of the Republican Party that opposed foreclosure relief. Individual-level longitudinal analyses demonstrate that Republican donors in distressed neighborhoods became less likely to contribute to Tea Party candidates but continued to give to other, more mainstream, Republican candidates. The Tea Party movement's unsympathetic portrayal of underwater home owners likely alienated Republican donors who witnessed neighbors of the same race as themselves suffering the plight of foreclosures. Despite the resulting fund-raising losses, Tea Party candidates performed better in primary elections in crisis-stricken districts. These findings challenge long-standing claims about how the US campaign finance system fuels polarization and extremism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]