How Politically Skewed Is Virginia’s Artista Class?

In my previous blog post, I documented how Virginia’s college and university faculty staff skew leftward in their campaign contributions (at least among those who donated $10,000 or more over the past 20 years). But the imbalance was nothing compared to that of Virginia’s artistic/literary class. Using the same methodology (more than $10,000 in contributions over the 20 years as found in the Virginia Public Access Project database), I find that artists and authors have contributed about 4.5 times more to Democrats than Republicans. That number understates the degree of the disparity. Patricia Cornwell, known for her Kay Scarpetta crime novels, accounted for almost four-fifths of all GOP contributions, but she has long since decamped for Connecticut.

By the standards of business and special-interest money, Virginia’s artists and writers don’t exercise a lot of clout in the campaign-contribution arena. Lopsided contributions from this group is more a reflection of how the Left dominates the commanding heights of highbrow culture.

— JAB