Multiple Donor Networks Begin to Shed Light on the Nomination Process: The 2004 Democratic Nomination Process

We begin our examination of the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination with a look at traditional measures (endorsements, polls, and aggregating campaign contributions) but show these indicators are unable to explain why John Kerry won. Our network of multiple donors in the preprimary period reveals that Kerry shared the most donors with the field and that he occupies the critical bridging position within the shared donor network. While divided initially, the Democrats clustered quickly into one, cohesive group behind Kerry. We then find the rate of return for donors of losing candidates was similar to the support that these groups had for Kerry in the preprimary stage.