NamePolitics

Tim

sits right of most names

liberaltypical nameconservative
Score
+0.09
More liberal than
19% of names
Measured from
21,601 contributors
more liberalevery scored namemore conservative

That ranking compares Tim 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.

Tim versus Timothy

People who go by Tim rather than Timothy sit 0.08 to the right of the full name. It is the same name. The difference is what people choose to be called.

Tim
liberalconservative
Timothy
liberalconservative

How does Tim 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, nationwide17,604 people
47% Democratic53% Republican

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

Registered voters, North Carolina293 people
38% Democratic62% Republican

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

Registered voters, Florida814 people
33% Democratic67% 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, Ohio669 people
25% Democratic75% 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 Washington state and local donors, Tim is 46% Democratic where that pool averages 55%, across 1,097 people. Worth a flag: among donors to 527 organisations, Tim tilts the other way. It is 77% Democratic there, but that pool averages 71% overall, so Tim sits left of its centre while the federal records put it right of theirs.

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 Tim in North Carolina against other registrants of the same age, sex and race leaves +0.07 that the demographics do not explain. For this name, almost nothing survives: the name is standing in for who happens to carry it.

Related spellings

Where Tim leans differently

StateDemocratic share of donorsAgainst that state’s own donors
CA61%−0.17
TX30%−0.35
FL31%−0.33
WA64%−0.06
OH40%−0.25
NY75%+0.20
IL54%−0.30
MI43%−0.33

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

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