Meme says Hillary Clinton’s top donors are banks and corporations, Bernie Sanders’ are labor unions

As Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders gains ground on Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, the two candidates’ supporters have been sparring, including over campaign donations.

Recently, a reader sent us a social media meme that paints Clinton’s list of donors as dominated by corporate interests, whereas Sanders’ top 10 donors come largely from labor unions — a dichotomy that, to Democratic primary voters, puts Sanders in a more favorable light.

“Hillary: Top ten donor list. Representing banks, corporations and media,” the meme reads, providing a top-10 list with dollar amounts. “Bernie: Top ten donor list. Representing people.” The meme is topped by each candidate’s presidential campaign logo. (See the meme below.)

We can’t tell who produced this meme, but we thought it was worth a closer look.

We’ll start by noting that reasonable people can disagree about whether labor unions represent “people,” as the meme says, as opposed to just unionized workers, who are a relatively small subset of the entire population. We’ll also note that while this meme may appeal to union supporters and critics of Wall Street and big corporations, it also could be used as evidence that Sanders is just as reliant on one type of donor — labor unions — as Clinton is on big corporations.

We found that the data cited in the meme refers to cumulative donations over the course of each candidate’s political career as calculated by the Center for Responsive Politics, not just fundraising from the current presidential cycle. (Clinton and Sanders have announced their fundraising hauls for the second quarter of 2015, but have not yet released the full data that is due at the Federal Election Commission by July 15; a more complete analysis of the data will be compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics after that.)

By

Louis Jacobson

Chief Correspondent

July 7, 2015