Shaking the tin cup: Celebrity candidate fundraising in American elections

Background The literature on celebrity politics often asserts that celebrity politicians are good at fundraising. They are wealthy people in wealthy social networks, and this should give them a fundraising advantage compared to their noncelebrity opponents. Yet, this hypothesis has never been tested. Method Fundraising data from 1964 to 2022 was collected from multiple sources. Results This study finds that celebrity candidates are typically not able to out‐fundraise their opponents. Yet they perform remarkably well despite this disadvantage. Conclusions Celebrities tend to win elections when they raise more money than their opponents, run in open‐seat contests or local elections. They tend to lose elections when they lose the fundraising battle, challenge incumbents, or seek federal offices.