Students gathered in the forum space of East Commons on Oct. 17 to learn about the role money plays in a political campaign.
In a conversation hosted by Carrie Eaves, chair of political science and public policy at Elon University, students were able to get first-hand insights about donation tracking from Hilary Braseth, executive director of OpenSecrets.
OpenSecrets is a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit database website dedicated to tracking where and to whom money donated to election campaigns goes.
Braseth said during the event that the database aims to pull different data sets and make those available for policymakers, journalists and the general public to be able to access why decisions might be made in government.
Throughout the conversation, Braseth covered topics ranging from donation demographics to potential influence that funds may have on legislators.
Senior Katey Polovin attended the event and told Elon News News Network that the percentage breakdown of mega-donors — individuals who make extraordinarily large donations to a political party or campaign — was especially of interest to her. According to OpenSecrets, less than 1% of Americans contribute to roughly 77% of all campaign donations.
“That's just a lot of money donated by a very small percentage of people,” Polovin said.
Braseth said OpenSecrets aims to encourage people to use their resources to make informed political decisions through giving the public knowledge about political donations. She also encouraged people to utilize their site, especially as they begin to think about who to support this November.
“Our work is in our most critical moments right now as we lead up to the presidential election,” Braseth said.
Elon University will host two more events in the next week, the first being conversations with Elon Alumni around the 2024 election on Oct. 22 in Turner Theater. Maggie Macdonald ’15 will also host a discussion Oct. 23 in Lakeside 214, where she will provide an overview of gerrymandering in the state of North Carolina and contribution patterns by residents of Alamance County.