How Politically Biased Is Each Industry? Check These Charts
The news: The midterm elections this week demonstrated how sharply partisan politics are divided across age, gender and race groups. But what about different industries?
This week, political analysis firm Crowdpac released a report determining the political bias of different professions, based on campaign contribution data from individual donors dating back to the '80s. The resulting analysis lets us see where various industries fall on the political spectrum:
"In compiling all this data, and building these tools, we have the opportunity to shine some light on the political system and reveal some interesting insights and trends," Crowdpac CEO and co-founder Steve Hilton told Business Insider. "For example, our real data conforms with the claims that have been circulated about the extremely liberal profile of the entertainment and media sectors."
Let's dive in for a closer look.
1. News media
It looks like there is some basis for conservatives' frequent complaints regarding the "liberal media" — the vast majority of political contributions made by people in the media went to liberal candidates.
2. Entertainment industry
The same goes for the entertainment industry; it looks like some celebrities really do "Turn Out For What."
3. Academia
Higher education also remains a bastion of liberalism.
4. Tech industry
Silicon Valley is predictably a liberal stronghold: Among tech firms, Twitter is the most liberal, with 100% of its employees' donations going to liberal candidates.
5. Pharmaceuticals
There are a sizable number of conservative donors in the pharmaceutical industry, but most people are pretty liberal.
6. Law
Those in the legal profession are more evenly divided, although they still skew to the left.
7. Farming
Agriculture is a solidly conservative field.
8. Building and construction
The same conservative leaning can be seen with people in the construction industry.
9. Mining
While coal states have been traditionally Democratic, West Virginia's rightward turn is another indication of liberals turning away from the industry.
10. Oil, gas and coal
Other energy industries aren't popular with liberals either.
11. Tobacco
Big Tobacco remains firmly conservative.
12. Real estate
People in real estate are rather divided about politics, though donors were more likely to be conservative.
13. Banking and finance
Finance leans pretty conservative as well.
14. Hedge funds and private capital
But things look more evenly distributed among those in hedge funds and private capital.
15. Lobbying
As to be expected, lobbyists are spread fairly evenly in their donations, though there are few middle-of-the-road donors.
16. Car industry
The automobile industry is rather polarized, though there are a lot of donors to liberal candidates.
