Should we be allowed to contribute money to a political candidate for whom we are not a constituent?
That was the question posed to me recently by M.F., a reader from California. M.F. wanted to know if I considered it ethical to make such contributions, such as donating to a U.S. senator’s campaign when one is not a resident of that state.
M.F. does not indicate why she is asking or if she takes issue with U.S. citizens making contributions to candidates for whom they can’t vote. She may be OK with it. She might believe that it should be considered wrong for someone to donate money and possibly try to influence the election in a jurisdiction outside of where they vote.
Currently, it is not illegal for any individual to donate to someone running for office in a jurisdiction outside of where that individual is registered to vote as long as the individual is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and as long as they don’t exceed any donation contribution limits. (For federal elections such as the hypothetical U.S. Senate race that M.F. raises, those contribution limits are laid out by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) here: https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/candidate-taking-receipts/contribution-limits/.
Some might make the argument that it’s wrong for non-constituents to stick their noses into another state’s politics. But others might argue that while they can’t vote for that out-of-state candidate, they can show support for someone who might have influence over national policies that ultimately affect all citizens.
While it might be legal to donate to candidates they cannot vote for, contributors shouldn’t expect that their donations will or should in any way shift that candidate’s responsibility to represent the voters who might put them into office. Contributing to a candidate because you believe they might do a good job governing wherever they happen to be governing is OK. Contributing to a candidate to try to buy influence crosses ethical and legal lines, but that’s true whether you are a constituent or not.
There could be occasions when a good deal of money from individual contributors for an election flows in from a particular region outside of a candidate’s prospective jurisdiction. This may raise flags that outsiders may be exerting undue influence where they have no business doing so. The right thing for candidates to do is to make sure they know where the money is coming from and reject money from those whose views they know to be abhorrent.
If you’re going to contribute to a candidate, the right thing is to make sure you are doing so legally and make sure you have no expectations for anything in return other than the hope that the candidate will do their job well. Candidates should commit to not letting any money purchase their votes if they make it to office.
When only 53% of people in the United States believe their elected officials are honest according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, it might be easy to dismiss the expectation that candidates running for office will do what’s right. Nevertheless, they should and voters should hold them accountable even if it takes waiting until the next election cycle to vote them out of office.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.
Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.
(c) 2026 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
No comments:
Post a Comment