NamePolitics

Debra

sits middle of the pack

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
−0.24
More liberal than
52% of names
Measured from
21,762 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Debra with other names. The typical name scores −0.22, because people who donate to campaigns lean left as a group, so a name can sit left of zero and still be middle of the pack. The party splits below use a different yardstick again: each one is measured against an even fifty-fifty.

DIME contributor ideal points, 1979-2014. Negative is liberal, positive conservative.

How does Debra compare with someone else's name?

Party, by population

Different groups of people, measured in different ways. They do not always agree, and the disagreement is usually the interesting part.

Campaign donors, nationwide17,790 people
54% Democratic46% Republican

Federal contributions, 2016 to 2026. Donors skew older and wealthier than the country.

Registered voters, North Carolina10,559 people
41% Democratic59% Republican

Actual party registration, which is a choice people make at the DMV rather than with a chequebook.

Registered voters, Florida25,894 people
41% Democratic59% Republican

Party registration again, in a state with a very different mix of people. Florida and North Carolina agree on which way a name leans 88% of the time.

Primary voters, Ohio8,612 people
38% Democratic62% Republican

Ohio has no party registration, so this is the last primary ballot each voter chose to pull.

Another set of donor records points the same way. Among donors to 527 organisations, Debra is 74% Democratic where that pool averages 71%, across 1,381 people. Worth a flag: among Washington state and local donors, Debra tilts the other way. It is 53% Democratic there, but that pool averages 55% overall, so Debra sits right of its centre while the federal records put it left of theirs.

Worth noticing: donors named Debra lean Democratic while registered voters named Debra lean Republican. This happens for about a quarter of names, and it is why this page refuses to give you a single number.

Is it the name, or the people who have it?

Names carry age, sex and ethnicity, and those predict politics on their own. Comparing every Debra in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves −0.17 that the demographics do not explain. The name still carries a real signal of its own, leaning Republican.

Related spellings

Where Debra leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA65%+0.03
TX38%+0.04
FL39%+0.02
NY74%+0.14
PA55%+0.02
WA60%−0.20
IL68%+0.28
MI53%+0.05

The right column compares Debra with other donors in the same state, so it is not just telling you which states are Democratic.

Look up another name