(The Center Square) – In 2024, as the possibility of a Donald Trump/Joe Biden presidential rematch looks more and more possible, the University of Oregon and Oregon State University could break through into a new level of influence in Oregon and national politics as the source of nearly $7 million in campaign donations. Ninety-seven percent of the donations will go to Democrats.
In the 2016 presidential cycle, according to federal records compiled by OpenSecrets.org, the schools‘ staffers, mostly professors and administrators, gave $209,000 to Democrats, 99% of their total political giving. In the 2020 election cycle, giving to Democrats multiplied by six time to $1.2 million this time, 97% of total giving.
If the schools’ donations continue on that trajectory, Democrats could receive an unprecedented – and publicly funded – windfall of nearly $7 million dollars.
Critics say the overwhelming partisanship of the University of Oregon and Oregon State University are a sign that the schools have become political echo chambers where students are more likely to be indoctrinated than educated. Indeed in 2016, less then 0.5% of donations from the University of Oregon or $418, went to Republicans.
Jennifer Kabbany, editor of The College Fix, which tracks political correctness at universities nationwide, says the donations mask a deeper problem at universities, “The older, classically liberal (professors) who tended to support free speech, academic freedom and intellectual diversity are retiring. They are being replaced with younger, more radical scholars who use the classroom for activism and indoctrination rather than education. These new scholars tend to be far more politically active.” She argues that this transition has turned schools into one-party “echo chambers.”
The top recipients of University of Oregon money in 2020 were Joe Biden ($136,000), Bernie Sanders ($62,000), Elizabeth Warren ($49,000), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ($38,000) and the Democratic National Committee ($32,000).
The top recipients of Oregon State money in 2020 were Joe Biden ($131,000), Bernie Sanders ($42,000), the Democratic National Committee ($34,000), Elizabeth Warren ($29,000) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ($24,000).
