The Feedback Loop of Election Fundraising and Advocacy by Analyzing Tweets

• In Event: Politicians' Use of Social Media

Abstract

Twitter has evolved into an essential platform for politicians, offering a medium for quick communication, opinion sharing, and a new way of political interaction. This study explores the relationship between the tweets of House Representatives and their fundraising efforts. Consequently, candidates adopt various methods, including leveraging Twitter for fundraising activities. We expect that tweets with fundraising appeals tied to policy will lead to increased donations and sponsorships within relevant sectors. This upsurge in contributions is expected to further amplify the advocacy-related tweets of the Representatives. To test this expectation, we collected 50,356 original tweets from House of Representatives candidates during the 2020 election campaign, considering both Democrats and Republicans. During the election period, we analyze the relationship between candidates' fundraising and their tweets by matching fundraising data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) with the candidates' Twitter data. Specifically, we focus on how often candidates mention and represent their supporting donors in their tweets based on the amount of fundraising they receive. Additionally, we explore whether candidates’ advocacy-related tweets create a feedback loop, leading to increased donor engagement. Through the use of a matching method, we’ve identified correlations between the tweets of House Representatives and the amount of voter fundraising, the rate of increase, and the frequency of fundraising. This research will contribute to the study of feedback loop dynamics between politicians and donors, especially in the context of funding and advocacy.

Authors

• Gun Young Park

• MINKUNG JUNG

• Jiyoung Park, Yonsei University

• Young Seok Kim, University of Texas at Austin