Simply put, black families in the District overall have less wealth and income than white families — and therefore have less ability to give to political candidates. This helps explain why black D.C. residents are underrepresented year after year in political donations. As a recent study by Demos found, white individuals make up a disproportionate amount of donations to mayoral and council races compared with the white proportion of our population. Meanwhile, small donors are more likely to be people of color or female.
