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Senator Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate 2014 Internship: Gender and Campaign
Finance analysis for outreach and fundraising strategies
January Term 2014
Clay de Souza
Guilford College
desouzacc@guilford.edu
Prepared for Professor Maria Rosales
Abstract: During the January 2014 Winter Term, I engaged in an independent project to

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work on U.S. Senator Kay Hagan’s reelection campaign in her finance division as an intern. This
is a special project for to undertake as I have previously worked with her State Finance Director
back in the Summer of 2011 while her 2014 finance team was a one person operation, as well as
an intern at her congressional office in Greensboro back in 2009. Her current state finance team
has since grown as we now approach the heart of a busy election cycle season. I also undertook
this project with the intent of academically studying and researching Campaign Finance laws,
political fundraising and how female candidates fare in elections because of that.
My political background
I have extensive experience in the political field as I have volunteered with the
Democratic Party on the local level in Alamance County with the Alamance County Democratic
Party Chapter where I have served as the Vice President of the Young Democrats caucus for
about two terms and with the Young Democrats of North Carolina where I served as Historian
for one term. With the State Party, I have served as a proxy for the State Executive Committee
and currently am the 3rd Vice Chair of the 6th Congressional District covering Alamance,
Guilford and Caswell Counties. Nationally, I have been and still am involved with the Young
Democrats of America, serving on the Campaign Committee with the Southeast Region, and
have served in various roles with the Minority Caucus, Diversity & Inclusion Caucus, Finance
Committee, etc.
It is safe to say I am entrenched in politics. I have worked as a Campaign Manager for a
young female candidate, Erin Carlstrom, who is the current Vice Mayor of Santa Rosa, Ca. Back
in 2009 while living in Anaheim, CA, I interned with the Democratic Party of Orange County. I
have worked as a volunteer on many campaigns locally in North Carolina, South Carolina,
California and even Arizona.

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The list of candidates I have canvassed for, made phone calls for, donated my time for is
long. Ironically, most of my “clientele” has been primarily female candidates, like “Kay” herself.
This sparked my interest in helping to close the gender gap in our elected offices from the local
level to the national level. My other current project is researching for a friend who is running for
a municipality legislator office in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Candidate Background: Kay Hagan
Kay Hagan is a current U.S. Junior Senator representing North Carolina, alongside
Richard Burr. She has served as a Senator since her successful election over Elizabeth Dole in
2008 and is currently up for re-election. Hagan previously served in the North Carolina General
Assembly as a State Senator from 1999-2009 and had a successful career in banking. She has
been a pillar in the Greensboro community for over 30 years, along with her husband Chip. Since
taking office, she has been described by many in her party as a moderate or conservative
Democrat: ingredients many say is needed to be a democratic Senator representing North
Carolina.
My internship experience
For four weeks, I worked as an intern in the new campaign headquarters in Greensboro. I
noticed how the campaign now had several departments: Research, Compliance, Finance, Field,
and Press. Everyone in the campaign office is plugged in to their duties and job roles. The
campaign hours range from 9-7 pm as a 10 hour day operation. I tried to emulate the traditional
9-5 work experience while many other interns only work a few hours. The work can be tedious
and repetitive. My daily projects can include working on mailers, placing invitations in
envelopes, stamping envelopes; verifying addresses on returned mail by researching the correct
address of the contact online. Phone calls and follow-up were even a part of my tasks, inviting

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the individuals to any upcoming fundraising event where Kay would make an appearance and
speak.
I attended one fundraising event at the beginning of the internship in Wilson, where I
helped collect donations at the check-in station where I and another intern, volunteer or staff
member would greet guests as they entered the premises. At one event Kay could raise between
$1,000 and $10,000. When we would go back to campaign headquarters, we would enter the
information in a software called NGP VAN, a democratic-progressive candidate supporting
organization who provides software services to campaigns where they enter in contribution
amounts, voter contact information,etc. We are all told that info is confidential, but I find the
software unique as it shows you how much monies have been raised for the year to date. It shows
you also donors from all across North Carolina to California and New York.
There are 4 Finance Team staff members: A National Finance Director, whose job it is to
raise money from all of America from individuals and PACs(Political Action Committees) such
as moveon.org, Emily’s List and so many more. There is the State Finance Director and Deputy
State Finance Director, whom I report to for daily projects and tasks, whose job it is to raise
funds from North Carolina. It is important for any female candidate, especially one who sides
with left-leaning principles, to get money from wherever, especially in the post- ‘Citizens
United’ Era( which I will get to later in this paper).
I also even dabbled in Compliance by working with that department. My duties there
were to ensure that every detail about each financial donor is accurate to avoid any legal
penalties against the campaign. The Compliance team and Finance team work hand-in-hand at
times. You learn so much about financial regulations when you are working with any finance
team in any campaign. This work follows with my academic research of political fundraising,

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campaigning and female candidates.
Analysis of political science research
It’s factual that a lot of ‘left-of-center’ factions are turning into a more sophisticated types
of groups in their exercising of digital platforms for messaging, fundraising and other types of
campaign-related projects, however it’s also accurate that President Obama’s business approach
has had unsettling repercussions towards his base. Still ,the best capital, mobilized by unions,
environmental groups, feminist organizations and all of that— can do only do but so much when
many voters and former volunteers are inclined to stay home.This was evident in the 2010
midterm elections. A month before the 2010 elections, Obama strategist David Axelrod
mentioned that “almost the entire Republican margin is based on the enthusiasm gap.”1
Methodology
Utilizing multiple case studies as a model for my research,I initially,of course,sifted through for
key themes in articles, publications and web sites to find commonalities in women candidates on all levels
and what approach respective campaigns took to ensure victorious elections. These would help me to
explain scientific research in female candidates and how I can apply these methods to determine the best
course of action in producing adequate findings in this report and to use personally as I wish to embark on
1
Soloman, Norman. "How to Build a Grassroots Power Base." Nation 295.22 (2012): 24-36. Print.
1

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a career in political consulting specializing in women and minority candidates.
Volunteer Empowerment
Through my research and internship experience, one theme that frequently surfaced was
the concept of empowering volunteers( or interns in this case) and giving them(or us) a taste of
ownership and control in the campaign. It was like everyone had a “role” in the show.
Having a “you-centered” approach fed into this, as did the use of online tools that gave
interns and volunteers alike, essentially the power to organize and take action from their
computers/laptops. By having an integrated Web site that gave supporters this power,just like
with President Barack Obama’s successful 2008 and 2012 Presidential elections where it was
reported that in the first 24 hours of the 2008 campaign, more than 1,000 grassroots groups had
already formed on the Web site; Both Web sites displayed this empowerment with its action
page( My Barack Obama for instance) whose particular attention was/is on supporters and voters
assuming ownership of the campaign. An article described in summary, ‘‘Like no other
presidential contender before him, Mr. Obama has harnessed the power of the Internet to give
millions a sense of involvement in his campaign’’(Reid, 2008, p. 7).2
‘Empowering’ supporters, according to my research, means to show trust and placing
them on equal grounds with Campaign staff so they felt like part of the team.3 During the 2008
Obama campaign, Campaign managers tried to assemble a concrete/physical and online
2
Reid, T. (2008, November 2). Master of the web shares his night of triumph with the world.
2
The Times.
3
Levenshus,Abbey."Online Relationship Management in a Presidential Campaign: A Case Study of the Obama
Campaign's Management of Its Internet-Integrated Grassroots Effort." Journal of Public Relations Research 22.3
(2010): 313-35. Print.
3

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community to give volunteers a feeling of being on “Team Obama”. On the camp’s Web site,
videos and blog posts introduced supporters to campaign staffers with the aspirations that this
would augment the perception of being part of the staff circle. One article mentioned, ‘‘The
campaign also found new ways to use technology to keep in touch with supporters and give them
a sense of community’’ (Adair, 2008, p. 6A).4
With that being said, I came to the conclusion and realization that every campaign values
volunteers and interns , but does every campaign empowers them? “...I don’t think every
campaign uses them in the leadership way that they did.’’ (Jen O’Malley Dillon,)5 The Obama
Campaigns went through that by allowing supporters access to the voter file, which is normally
something that is handled by paid staff or consultants using a voter or donor database like
NGP(www.ngpvan.com) , from personal experiences working on campaigns;That shows that
campaigns trust who enters their enclaves:
‘‘We found that if you allow folks that inside information and plan, they become invested
in the effort. Your success becomes their success.Your volunteers become like full-time
employees in many ways.’’( Dillon)6 As an intern with Senator Hagan’s Finance Team, I used
NGP Van to identify voters who and other contacts who have contributed financially to Senator
Hagan in the past during her 2008 Senatorial campaign. I and other interns were able to view
how many dollars were and are going to the campaign to the very moment. To have such
4
Adair, B. (2008, November 5). A sophisticated,tough outfit set a new standard.St. Petersburg Times, 6A.
5
Online Relationship Management in a Presidential Campaign: A Case Study of the Obama Campaign's
Management of Its Internet-Integrated Grassroots Effort.
6
Jen O'Malley Dillon is a Partner at Precision(http://www.precisionstrategies.com/pages/team) and a veteran
organizer, campaign manager who most recently served as Deputy Campaign Managerfor President Obama's
election campaigns, overseeing the largest field organization in the history of presidential campaigns, voter
protection and education programs, and political outreach,and leading the development and use of data analytics to
target, register, persuade and mobilize voters.
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confidential information in front of us is really a privilege to be able to lend a hand in any
fashion ,even in a non-paying capacity.
Senator Kay Hagan’s 2014 Re-election Campaign Website
Compliance in elections and political activity : Lobbying and Political Campaigns
Candidate Appearances
Non-profit groups, Political Action Committees and Lobbying groups may decide to
invite political candidates to speak at events sponsored by that organization, either officially as a
candidate or as an individual private citizen. In this case at either event, one will need to make
sure that the responsible and liable parties do it right or you will run into problems with political
campaigning, such as legal,ethical and Public Relations issues.
If there was a “how to guide” on how to ‘stay out of jail in politics’ this is a simple
formula: If you invite a candidate or any elected official for that matter to speak at one of your

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events as a ‘political candidate’, with the goal of hustling for votes, you or that liable person
must make sure that:
❖ You provide an equal opportunity to other candidates seeking the
same office
❖ Your nonprofit does not voice any support for or opposition to
the candidate (this should be stated explicitly when the candidate
is introduced and in communications concerning the candidate’s
attendance), and
❖ No political fundraising occurs.7
An example I that can be applicable: The Greensboro International Civil Rights Museum,
a nonprofit museum, has the square footage suitable for hosting receptions. The campaign
committee of Candidate John Salley, who supports increased funding for museums, asks to rent
the hall for a fundraising event. Even though it has never rented the hall for a political-type
event, the museum agrees to do it for a price that would be charged to any other group renting
the hall. Later down the road that year, the group does not accommodate similar requests from
other campaigns in other elections. The museum is now in an awkward position as:
➢ It did not offer the rental hall on an equal basis to all political
candidates/campaigns/committees
➢ It did offer the service to the general public, and
➢ It made the service available only during a particular election.
The museum would not have engaged in political activity if it had made the hall available
for rent to on an equal basis.
501(c)(4) social welfare organizations,unlike 501(c)(3) nonprofits, can engage in
extensive political campaign activity. Especially, as a result of the Supreme Court’s controversial
decision in Citizens United v. FEC, 501(c)(4) nonprofits can spend their money (both voluntary
7
Fishman, Stephen. Every Nonprofit's Tax Guide: How to Keep Your Tax-exempt Statusand Avoid Irs Problems.
Berkeley: Nolo, 2013. Print.
7
7

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contributions and general treasury funds) to support or oppose candidates for the U.S. House,
U.S. Senate, and president during election cycles.8 Before than, such advocacy had to be made
through Political Action Committees (“PACs”) using discretionary donations rather than
general treasury funds. Even with the new liberal freedoms in campaign donations, there are still
some specific setbacks on 501(c)(4) political activities:
➢ Are prohibited from give money directly to candidates
❖ the political campaign activity must have the intent to advance the organization’s social
welfare purpose(I.E. an organization formed to advance public schools could endorse
candidates who side with its positions)
➢ Political activity may not be that social organization’s sole mission or activity as no more
than 50% of its activities can involve political work.
Furthermore, social organizations that spend their monies on political activity can
become eligible to a special tax for the total amount spent on political activity or even a
percentage of the organization’s net income. The eligible amount is taxed at the highest
corporate tax rate at a premium of 35%. Organizations that don’t have investment income should
not concern themselves regarding this tax. (See IRC Sec. 527.)9
Gender, Campaign Finance, and Electoral Success
8
Richard L. Hasen (October 25, 2012). "Super-Soft Money: How Justice Kennedy paved the way for "SuperPACS"
and the return of soft money.". Slate (magazine).Retrieved January 25, 2014.
8
9
http://www.irs.gov/Charities-&-Non-Profits/Political-Organizations

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Even with high success rates of women running for office,including Senator Hagan, it is
not really emblematic of the actual presence in the federal, state, and local elective offices.
Previous research has examined components that contribute to the famine of female candidates
on the state and federal level, not to much is every talked about the local level. To that end,it is
found that, like the state and federal elections, women do just as good enough as men when they
pursue office but not as much female-likely-candidates do not even actually run. To add, women
candidates and their male counterpart’s backgrounds are very similar as far as qualifications.
They also raise practically the same amounts of campaign funds, and receive donations from the
same sources. I found few differences between male and female candidates other than cultural
and sociological thoughts and perceptions.10 It is important we highlight these findings to
encourage other woman to run for office at all levels and junctions. As an inspiring Political
Consultant, it is my duty to seek out and scout for potential female candidates to run for all
offices if they are able and aspire to and the research shows it can be done. “Kay” herself started
her political career in the North Carolina General Assembly in the late 1990s.
There are two explainable reasons for why women do just comparable well as male
candidates when they decide to seek office. Firstly,male and female candidates are alike in most
respects: they fundraise basically the same amount of campaign funds, they possess similar
backgrounds and experience, and they operate identical campaigns (Burrell, 2005; Darcy, Welch,
10
Adams, Brian E., and Ronnee Schreiber. "Gender, Campaign Finance, And Electoral Success In Municipal
Elections." Journal of Urban Affairs 33.1 (2011): 83-97. Print.
10

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& Clark, 1994)1112. A tenable telling is that male and female candidates do reveal
basic differences in terms of fundraising, experience, and campaigning, but those differences
mesh in a unique way that they break each other off, in the cumalative having next to no impact
on electoral outcomes. For example, voters might prefer male candidates, but female candidates
may be able to counter that by raising more money. Or voters may prefer female candidates but
male candidates may have more political experience on average due to the gender disparity.With
these actions in motion, we can make inferences and conclusions whether male and female
candidates are substantially different in terms of their fundraising and prior political experience.
11
Burrell, Barbara. 2005. Campaign financing: Women’s experience in the modern era. In Women
11
and elective office: Past,present, and future, ed. Sue Thomas and Clyde Wilcox, 26-40.
11
New York: Oxford University Press.
11
12
Darcy, R., Susan Welch, and Janet Clark. 1994. Women, Elections, and Representation. New York, NY:
Longman.

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Source: Gender, Campaign Finance, And Electoral Success In Municipal Elections
The table above includes data on average contribution sizes, excluding candidate's’
personal funds and independent expenditures. Each city in a municipal election requires
candidates to itemize contributions, but the specific requirements vary from municipal to state to
federal elections. For example, in Seattle candidates must itemize all contributions of greater
than $25, but in Chicago the threshold is $150 and over.1314 These two measures can determine
whether women raise money in smaller doses than men.
Through of all this examination, there is no clear pattern in terms of whether women
collect donations in smaller amounts. In some of the cities listed above, some female candidates
are solely dependent on smaller donations and others aren’t where they depend on massive
donations to hold themselves and their respective campaigns over. The graph is almost self-
13
http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/cfl/cfl98/chart1.html
14
http://www.seattle.gov/ethics/elpub/Rules1-15v2012.pdf

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explanatory in determining which gender has the upper-hand in itemized contributions.
Although these are really indicative of federal elections, it does show how female
candidates can fair if they are to seek higher office, such as Senator Hagan. The Senator’s
campaign has a national finance team that fundraises from all 50 states through, including the
cities listed in the table. Chicago was an exception, with a disparity of male candidates receiving
$100 more than female candidates. In the other cities there is no evidence that women attract,
smaller contributions than men. 15This leads to the discovery that women bring in money in
smaller increments, and therefore have to work harder to fundraise enough to be competitive in
elections-that generally does not apply to the municipal level.(Baker, 2006; Fox, 1997)1617
Super PAC’s that support female candidates
There are many PAC’s in the U.S. that are centered to help finance a female candidate’s
campaign. Washington, DC-based Emily’s List specializes in receiving funds from individual
donors and redistributing those funds to candidate’s campaigns. These PACs help female
candidates raise funds in elections from the local to congressional level. Organizations like these
leave candidates better off than without any assistance from them. Emily’s List has helped out
many candidates and are still continuing to do so. Emily’s List supports Pro-choice female
15
Schreiber, R. and Adams, B. , 2008-03-20 "Local Elections, the “ Political Pipeline,” and Women’ s
Underrepresentation in Elective Office" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the WESTERN POLITICAL
SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, ManchesterHyatt, San Diego, California Online <PDF>. 2013-12-15
fromhttp://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p238270_index.html
16
Baker, A. (2006). Reexamining the genderimplications of campaign finance reform: How higher ceilings on
individual donors disproportionately impact female candidates.The Modern American 2 (Fall), 18–23.
17
Fox, R. (1997). Gender dynamics in congressionalelections.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
17
Hogan, R. (2007). The effects of candidate gender on campaign spending in state legislative elections. Social
Science Quarterly, 88(5), 1092–1105.
17

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candidates and provides candidate trainings for those who are considering to run for office,
known as Political Opportunity Programs.18 They, every year, have an agenda to elect women
nationwide to ensure there is parity in elected office. Emily’s List has help elected Former North
Carolina Governor Bev Purdue, Hilary Clinton , and Kay Hagan in the past. There are many
‘subsidiaries’ of Emily’s List , including Lillian's List based in North Carolina with the same
mission.
Conclusion
More research is needed that I want to expand upon to examine the disparity of women in
elected office as well as making case studies from more individual examples , including all
candidates from any elected office nationally and even internationally to study what is being
done properly in one particular jurisdiction or country. I want to delve in with real-life field
experience-being that I am already experienced by working on many campaigns in various roles.
Studying more Women’s Organizations and Super PAC’s are key to determining if women are
on equal footing as their male counterparts in running for any office by eliminating any rival
explanation. Using different methodologies would also aid in any expanded project on this issue
of parity in elected office. As one who is studying to , in essence, be a Political Consultant, I feel
it is needed to study every facet academically as well as from my own involvement in politics. I
also want to study and examine other industries , such as the entertainment industry to learn how
scouting and recruiting talent benefits the better society at large and the creative arts.
18
emilyslist.org

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Particularly, examining talent agents to see how they advise and help their female clientele
succeed in the film, TV ,music, sports and theatre industries. That can aid me in learning to be a
sufficient consultant getting women into elected office. In addition to all of this, looking at
different firms( fundraising, polling,etc.) will be beneficial in learning how to develop winnable
strategies.
My ‘field’ experiences will ideally include working as an aide, advisor, consultant and
manager to my friend who is seeking office in Puerto Rico and studying up their respective
election commision and political parties and organizations and applying my skills, knowledge,
expertise and research to ensure my candidate has the best shot at succeeding while learning
more about finance and compliance by working with Senator Hagan’s staff and/or any consulting
firm.
.
References
Adair, B. (2008, November 5). A sophisticated, tough outfit set a new standard. St.

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Petersburg Times, 6A.
Adams, Brian E., and Ronnee Schreiber. "Gender, Campaign Finance, And Electoral
Success In Municipal Elections." Journal of Urban Affairs 33.1 (2011): 83-97. Print.
Baker, A. (2006). Reexamining the gender implications of campaign finance reform:
How higher ceilings on individual donors disproportionately impact female candidates. The
Modern American 2 (Fall), 18–23.
Burrell, Barbara. 2005. Campaign financing: Women’s experience in the modern era. In
Women
and elective office: Past, present, and future, ed. Sue Thomas and Clyde Wilcox, 26-40.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Darcy, R., Susan Welch, and Janet Clark. 1994. Women, Elections, and Representation.
New York, NY: Longman.
Fishman, Stephen. Every Nonprofit's Tax Guide: How to Keep Your Tax-exempt
Statusand Avoid Irs Problems. Berkeley: Nolo, 2013. Print.
Fox, R. (1997). Gender dynamics in congressional elections. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hogan, R. (2007). The effects of candidate gender on campaign spending in state
legislative elections. Social Science Quarterly, 88(5), 1092–1105.
Levenshus, Abbey. "Online Relationship Management in a Presidential Campaign: A
Case Study of the Obama Campaign's Management of Its Internet-Integrated Grassroots Effort."
Journal of Public Relations Research 22.3 (2010): 313-35. Print.
Online Relationship Management in a Presidential Campaign: A Case Study of the
Obama Campaign's Management of Its Internet-Integrated Grassroots Effort.
Reid, Tim. "Barack Obama: Master of the Web Shares His Night of Triumph with the
World."The London Times [London] 8 Nov. 2008: n. pag. The Times. Times NewspaperLimited,
8 Nov. 2008. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article1890430.ece>.
Richard L. Hasen (October 25, 2012). "Super-Soft Money: How Justice Kennedy paved
the way for "SuperPACS" and the return of soft money.". Slate (magazine). Retrieved January
25, 2014.
Schreiber, R. and Adams, B. , 2008-03-20 "Local Elections, the “ Political Pipeline,”

18. 18
and Women’ s Underrepresentation in Elective Office" Paper presented at the annual meeting
of the WESTERN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, Manchester Hyatt, San Diego,
California Online <PDF>. 2013-12-15
fromhttp://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p238270_index.html
Soloman, Norman. "How to Build a Grassroots Power Base." Nation 295.22 (2012): 24-
36. Print.

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