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Presentation Type

Open Access Poster Presentation

Abstract

This study focuses on the link between knowledge of campaign finance and trust held by Americans in political institutions and members of Congress. Political trust makes a significant impact on political support and democratic stability. The existing literature on the topic suggests that knowing that a congressional candidate has accepted large donations harms political trust. I used a self-administered online survey to examine the connection between perceptions of congressional campaign funding and political trust. My survey results demonstrate a significant relationship between trust and perceptions about campaign fundraising. Specifically, the more money that the average congressional candidate was believed to have raised is associated with low levels of trust in Congress. The survey also included an embedded survey experiment that featured a hypothetical candidate running for Congress who either accepted or rejected a contribution of significant value from a super PAC. The results show that those who were randomly assigned the candidate who rejected the contribution rated the candidate more favorably and reported higher levels of trust in the candidate to represent their interests, on average.

Start Date

13-4-2026 10:00 AM

End Date

13-4-2026 10:50 AM

Faculty Advisor

Kyle Endres

Department

Department of Political Science

Student Type

Undergraduate Student

Comments

Award: Fruehling Undergraduate Research Fellowship

File Format

application/pdf

File Size

834 KB

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Apr 13th, 10:00 AM Apr 13th, 10:50 AM

Perceptions of Money in Politics: Analyzing the Connection Between Knowledge of Congressional Campaign Fundraising and Political Trust in the United States

This study focuses on the link between knowledge of campaign finance and trust held by Americans in political institutions and members of Congress. Political trust makes a significant impact on political support and democratic stability. The existing literature on the topic suggests that knowing that a congressional candidate has accepted large donations harms political trust. I used a self-administered online survey to examine the connection between perceptions of congressional campaign funding and political trust. My survey results demonstrate a significant relationship between trust and perceptions about campaign fundraising. Specifically, the more money that the average congressional candidate was believed to have raised is associated with low levels of trust in Congress. The survey also included an embedded survey experiment that featured a hypothetical candidate running for Congress who either accepted or rejected a contribution of significant value from a super PAC. The results show that those who were randomly assigned the candidate who rejected the contribution rated the candidate more favorably and reported higher levels of trust in the candidate to represent their interests, on average.