Ninety-two percent of NYU employees’ total campaign contributions between 2023 and 2024 went toward Democratic organizations, according to a WSN analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission.

The public data from the FEC revealed that 3,789 faculty, staff and administrators at the university donated $2.2 million from 2023-24. While the majority of contributions were allocated toward Democratic organizations, Republican campaigns received 5% and other political committees, including nonpartisan groups like lobbying organizations, received the rest. For this year’s presidential candidates, NYU contributors donated $682,039 to Vice President Kamala Harris, $23,244 to former President Donald Trump and $1,128 to Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

The data took into account campaign contributions made by faculty, staff and administrators who listed either “New York University” or “NYU” as their employer from Jan. 1, 2023 to Oct. 23, 2024. Data from the FEC does not include contributions made to super PACs or independent expenditure-only political action committees. 

Contributions made by researchers, doctors and staff at NYU Langone Health surpassed those made by any other school at the university, including the university’s international campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. While NYU Langone employees contributed the most in dollars, the contributions from the Silver School of Social Work and the School of Liberal Studies showed the highest rate of Democratic party affiliations. While contributions from NYU Shanghai had the highest rate of Republican party affiliations, this is only representative of five donors. 

Among NYU’s schools that include undergraduate programs, professors and staff at the College of Arts & Science contributed the most in dollars to Democratic campaigns, while those at the Stern School of Business contributed the most to Republican ones.  

ActBlue, Harris Victory Fund and Harris for President were the top three organizations that received the most contributions by NYU employees. However, WinRed was the seventh most donated committee, receiving almost $31,000.

Susan Andersen, a CAS professor emerita, told WSN that she has contributed to Democratic organizations for nearly 24 years. Andersen said she began donating more in 2016 as she saw it as a “national emergency.” She contributed more than $47,000 to multiple political committees, including ActBlue, Harris Victory Fund and to congress members. 

“Since 2016, which I found catastrophic and frightening, as America took its first steps in sliding toward autocracy, I shifted to donating small amounts monthly to tons of candidates who could help us hold onto or win back the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, as this is so absolutely crucial to preventing the worst from occurring,” Andersen said. 

CAS professor Richard Cole, who has been donating to Democratic campaigns for nearly a decade, said that although the amount of his contributions has generally increased over the years, he donates the most to campaigns in presidential election years. Over this past year, he contributed more than $14,000 to several organizations, including ActBlue and Harris for President. 

“I support the Democratic party, and I believe in making donations of a size that helps make a difference,” Cole said in a statement to WSN. “Though I realize that in the greater scheme of things, I am still a relatively small donor — but there are many of us, I believe.”

In 2020, campaign contributions from higher education employees nationally also swayed significantly toward Democratic organizations. Employees donated $4.9 million to President Joe Biden compared to $890,000 to Trump. The institution that donated the most to Biden that year was the University of California, which has historically remained the highest contributor to Democratic presidential candidates. 

A 2016 WSN analysis of FEC data showed that 90% of NYU faculty members’ campaign contributions went to then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. While all contributions totaled to $48,376, only one faculty member donated to Republican candidate Jeb Bush, who lost against Trump in the 2016 Republican primaries. 

“It’s important to act on one’s values as best as one can — by doing all one can to support candidates who are likely to do the most good and also to do the least harm in the U.S. for the American people,” Andersen said.  “To me, it’s crucial to make a choice in American elections between the feasible options, and to do what one can to further that choice.”