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Increasing grassroots, small dollar donations has long been appealing to reformers seeking to limit the negative effects of money in politics. Still, important questions about small donors remain. Are they becoming more common, especially in the Democratic Party, whose candidates increasingly emphasize their grassroots connections? Are small donors really all that different from larger donors and rank-and-file voters? And what does their presence in partisan campaign finance networks tell us about the makeup and direction of the parties? In this paper we use financial records and survey data from the CCES to chart the trajectory of small dollar donors and examine their demographic and ideological characteristics. We find that, in recent cycles, the Democratic Party has attracted a growing share of money from small dollar donors, driven at least in part by technological advantages and the changing composition of their supporters. These donors are more demographically representative of the American public but share similar levels of ideological extremism as large donors. Importantly, female and ideologically extreme candidates are most likely to benefit from small donor funding, providing mixed evidence regarding the efficacy of potential reforms.

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What are the dynamics of partisan rhetoric in presidential campaigns? (How) has presidential candidate partisanship changed over time? Analyzing a comprehensive dataset of party-related statements in presidential campaign speeches over the 1952–2012 period, we show that Democratic and Republican candidates have taken distinctive approaches to partisanship. Overall, Democratic candidates have been partisans, while Republicans have largely refrained from partisan rhetoric on the campaign trail. However, this difference has narrowed substantially over time, due to a dramatic decline in the partisanship of Democratic presidential candidates. We argue that Democratic and Republican candidates have adopted different campaign strategies that reflect both enduring party differences and changing political contexts. Though naturally inclined to partisanship, Democratic candidates have adopted more conciliatory strategies primarily in response to growing public antipathy toward partisan rancor. In contrast, Republicans’ tendency toward more conciliatory rhetoric has been reinforced by political developments discouraging partisan campaigning.