Redistricting encourages more out-of-district contributions to Congressional candidates from individuals

Recent years have seen growing concern over the amount of money in US politics, especially from outside groups and political action committees. In new research, Michael H. Crespin and Barry Edwards focus on the group that actually provides the majority of donations to Congressional candidates: individual donors. They find that those on the highest incomes give the most, and that much of these donations come from out-of-district sources. They also find that redistricting leads to more donations coming from outside the district, while those districts that have stable boundaries experience rising levels of in-district donations.