NamePolitics

Jacob

sits middle of the pack

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
−0.27
More liberal than
56% of names
Measured from
6,329 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Jacob 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.

Jacob versus Jake

People who go by Jake rather than Jacob sit 0.27 to the right of the full name. It is the same name. The difference is what people choose to be called.

Jacob
liberalconservative
Jake
liberalconservative

How does Jacob 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, nationwide7,488 people
66% Democratic34% Republican

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

Registered voters, North Carolina10,226 people
27% Democratic73% Republican

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

Registered voters, Florida15,333 people
34% Democratic66% 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, Ohio4,068 people
39% Democratic61% Republican

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

Other donor records point the same way. Among donors to 527 organisations, Jacob is 87% Democratic where that pool averages 71%, across 724 people. Among Washington state and local donors, Jacob is 60% Democratic where that pool averages 55%, across 337 people.

Worth noticing: donors named Jacob lean Democratic while registered voters named Jacob 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 Jacob in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves −0.19 that the demographics do not explain. The name still carries a real signal of its own, leaning Republican.

Related spellings

  • Jake
    liberalconservative
  • Jace
    liberalconservative
  • Jakob
    liberalconservative

Where Jacob leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA75%+0.47
NY81%+0.58
TX52%+0.60
FL42%+0.16
WA82%+0.91
IL80%+0.91
PA60%+0.23
MI64%+0.53

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

Look up another name