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Election day is in two weeks. That means all eyes are now on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
It remains unclear who Americans will ultimately support, as polls for the election remain close. But amid a tumultuous year of numerous committee-related legal settlements and continued pressure from the Justice Department, Inman is curious as to which candidate is running away with the support of real estate experts. I had
Conventional wisdom holds that real estate tends to be somewhat true. So is that really true even today? Have recent legal developments changed the views of real estate agents or encouraged more political involvement? Has the political landscape of the real estate industry, along with that of the broader electorate as a whole, been transformed?
To find the answer, Inman turned to data on the U.S. Federal Election Commission website, looking for political contributions from individuals who listed “real estate agent” as their occupation. Inman originally set a date range that covered all of 2023 and 2024. But that resulted in hundreds of thousands of entries.
To narrow the focus, Inman instead set a date range starting March 15, the day the National Association of Realtors announced the settlement of the landmark commission lawsuit. The logic behind this date is that this settlement opens a new chapter for the industry and makes government regulation an even more important issue for real estate professionals. It also more or less coincides with the intensity of this year’s election season. This means any donations made in response to events such as debates or geopolitical events will be included.
To see how this year compared to previous presidential election cycles, Inman also collected data from mid-March to mid-October 2020.
The data Inman analyzed does not include donations from companies or industry groups and should not be interpreted as equivalent to votes. Only a small number of committed people make political contributions, and in the end it is the less committed voters who go to the polls who ultimately decide the outcome of the election.
But this data helps us understand the political dynamics of real estate players, and the results are surprising. Major Democratic organizations and campaigns have so far outperformed their Republican counterparts. These results represent a reversal from the previous election cycle in 2020 and ultimately suggest that the industry is more politically diverse than sometimes assumed.
Large donation to Democratic Party
Since mid-March, real estate agents have made donations to 867 different political action committees, campaigns, candidates and other organizations, recorded by the FEC. Of these organizations, the Democratic PAC ActBlue, which focuses specifically on soliciting donations from small donors, was the biggest winner. Since mid-March, the organization has brought in a total of $2,498,241 from real estate agents.
That money came from about 20,000 real estate agents.
(Note: Inman has attempted to accurately count the number of unique political contributors to this article. However, if a small number of contributors donate under different names, they may be counted multiple times For example, a person who donated once as John Smith and then again as Jonathan Smith could be included twice in the dataset, but such instances are likely rare, so the contribution (The number should be more or less accurate.)
The second biggest winner in the real estate agent giving game was Vice President Kamala Harris’ official campaign, which raised about $860,683 from just over 2,000 donors.
Other Democratic organizations that received significant income from real estate agents include the Harris Victory Fund, which received $174,474 (8th place on the list), the liberal super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, which received $100,000, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which received $100,000. Approximately $91,116 (11th place), including the Democratic National Party. The committee had about $65,837 (13th place), the Harris Action Fund had $19,800 (17th place) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had $17,672 (20th place).
Outside of the top 20, the list is dominated by Congressional and local campaigns, as well as smaller PACs.
Major Democratic or Democratic-leaning organizations that focused on presidential elections or national politics in general and placed in the top 20 slots on the list brought in a total of $3,827,826 from mid-March to mid-October. These organizations ultimately earned eight of the top 20 spots on the list.
Credit: Jim Dalrymple II (via FEC Data)
Republicans earned less.
On the other side of the aisle, third on the list was Republican fundraising platform WinRed, which raised $751,241 from just over 7,000 individual donors.
Additionally, Republicans occupied positions 4 through 7 on the list. In fourth place was Donald Trump’s campaign, which raised $616,739. In fifth place was the Republican National Committee with $335,987. In sixth place was another Trump group, the Trump 47 Committee, with $268,350. In seventh place was the Trump National Committee JFC (PAC), which raised $241,462.
Additionally, the National Republican Senatorial Committee received $89,427 (11th place), the Trump Save America Community Chest Committee received $55,075 (13th place), and the National Republican Congressional Committee received $42,082 (14th place).
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Team Kennedy also rounded out the top 20 in 16th place with $31,521. Mr. Kennedy was running as an independent, but in August he suspended his campaign and endorsed Mr. Trump.
In total, national and White House-focused Republicans took eight of the top 20 spots on the list (same as Democrats), but all campaigns and PACs combined brought in $2,400,367.
Credit: Jim Dalrymple II (via FEC Data)
Surprisingly mixed results
Real estate has long had a reputation for being a somewhat conservative industry. In 2019, for example, the political donation tracking group Open Secret described the industry as “President Trump’s biggest ally in 2020” (although that assessment goes beyond the individual donations that Inman focused on; This work was based on donations from industry “affiliates” including ().
The Biden administration has also become more aggressive in real estate, including efforts to reinstate an investigation into the National Association of Realtors. The move has led to speculation that real estate experts will rally behind changes in the White House.
But for now, industry rank and file are divided, and real estate agents don’t appear to be antagonizing Democrats. The $2.4 million that nationally focused Republican groups have raised over the past seven months is significantly lower than the $3.8 million raised by Democrats.
If Kennedy’s funding were calculated in favor of Republicans, or if smaller organizations were included, the Republican total would increase somewhat. For example, the conservative PAC Save America took 22nd place on the list, raising $16,627. But that is still not enough to close the gap. Democrats still have an advantage over Republicans among individual real estate agents.
It’s also worth noting that Democrats’ fundraising lead among real estate agents is largely due to the success of ActBlue, an organization that also focuses on small donors.
As mentioned above, donations are not votes, so either Democrats or Republicans could end up winning more real estate agent support at the ballot box. But what we know now is that the real estate agent was inspired to give Team Blue more funding. And it highlights how the real estate industry is even more fragmented than is generally realized.
It’s also worth noting that in addition to national PACs and White House campaigns, real estate agents also donate to hundreds of other PACs and candidates. For example, the top 20 spots are a mix of Ted Cruz’s Senate campaign (No. 20) and his challenger Colin Allred’s campaign (No. 16). The fact that Mr. Allred has surpassed Mr. Cruz in giving to real estate agents further supports the broader trend that Democrats currently have a fundraising advantage among real estate professionals.
Real estate agents contributed a total of $7,863,825
Compare 2024 and 2020
To better understand how unique 2024 is, Inman also extracted data from mid-March to mid-October of 2020. (Inman kept the date range the same to get more comparable numbers; in the case of 2020, it was possible to have continuous data throughout the election period.)
As was the case in 2024, ActBlue was the top recipient of donations from individual real estate agents in 2020, with the PAC raising $3,930,582, more than it raised during the same period of this election cycle. It was about $1.5 million more.
The Biden campaign came in fourth place, raising $1,370,190. In total, Democratic or Democratic-affiliated organizations focused on national elections and the White House held eight of the top 20 spots in 2020 (same as in 2024), raising $6,490,489. This is significantly higher than the approximately $3.8 million raised by comparable organizations this year.
Credit: Jim Dalrymple II (via FEC Data)
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans won seven of the top 20 spots in 2020. However, those seven spots include second place WinRed, which raised $3,805,614, a much better result than the organization has earned so far in 2024. Republican campaigns and PACs focused on the nation or the White House in 2022 raised $6,981,159. That’s about $500,000 more than Democrats, blowing away this year’s earnings.
These numbers have different meanings. The past four years have been the toughest for real estate in a generation, due to high interest rates and the resulting slowdown in sales. And that forced some real estate agents out of the business.
Therefore, the relatively low number of campaign contributions from real estate agents in 2024 reflects the fact that there will be fewer real estate agents overall and those who remain may have less disposable income to spend on politics. There is a possibility that it is. Another possibility is that more money is flowing into politics through other means rather than as personal campaign contributions.
Or perhaps some real estate people are simply less enthusiastic about this election than they were four years ago. After all, this is Donald Trump’s third time running for president, and there is likely some fatigue set in.
Credit: Jim Dalrymple II (via FEC Data)
Still, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the results of the Republican Party’s top organizations this time were rather mediocre. In the last election cycle, the red team defeated the blue team by a sizeable margin. The old stereotype that the industry tends to be conservative was true.
But this time, the tables were turned. I don’t know if that means the industry has undergone some kind of political change or if there are other facts behind this change. But what is clear is that in 2024, the real estate profession looks more politically divided than many expected.
Email Jim Dalrymple II
