Over the past decade, Grinnell College employees have poured more than $400,000 into political campaigns and groups. 98 percent of these contributions went to Democratic candidates and committees according to an analysis the Scarlet & Black conducted on publicly available Federal Election Commission data.
This near-exclusive support for Democrats sharply contrasts larger Poweshiek County, where Grinnell is located and consistently votes Republican. Donald Trump carried the county in all three of his campaigns — securing 50.3 percent of the vote in 2016, 56.6 percent in 2020 and 57.5 percent in 2024. Local Republican candidates like State Representative Dean Fisher have repeatedly dominated elections. Yet within this conservative-leaning county, Grinnell College employees remain a liberal stronghold, donating $76,871 to Democratic causes in 2024.
The College’s strong Democratic lean reflects national political trends relating to higher education. Across the country, voters with advanced degrees favor Democrats — exit polls from 2024 show 55 percent of college-educated voters supported Democratic nominees.
Courtney Nava, assistant professor of political science at Grinnell College, attributes academia’s Democratic lean partially to changes in political alignment related to education.
“It used to be that if you had a bachelor’s degree, you were more likely to be a Republican, but if you had a master’s degree or doctorate, you tended to be more likely to be a Democrat,” Nava said.
She explained that academia generally aligns with Democratic policies, which tend to support research funding and educational institutions.
“If you are an academic, researcher and a scientist who works at an institution, it would go against your own interests to vote for the Republican Party in a lot of ways, because the Republican Party has platforms that are centered around cutting the Department of Education,” Nava said.
Nava noted that election years typically generate increased political donations due to heightened political awareness, described by political scientists as “salience.” This phenomenon explains peaks in contribution activity during election cycles, as individuals engage more actively in politics and related causes.
Grinnell College, Iowa’s wealthiest private college, with an endowment exceeding $2.7 billion, often hosts Democratic candidates due to Iowa’s influential role in presidential caucuses. Bernie Sanders visited in 2016, while Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden appeared during the 2020 primary season.
The campus has also seen active involvement in LGBTQ+ advocacy. In February 2025, more than 100 people — many of them members of the campus community — rallied in downtown Grinnell to protest state legislation they viewed as anti-trans. Earlier, the campus community responded to vandalism targeting Grinnell’s Stonewall Resource Center by organizing events such as a Queer People of Color drag show, attended by roughly 500 students.
Grinnell itself has become increasingly vocal against such policies. In April 2025, President Anne F. Harris joined over 150 university leaders, including those from Harvard and Princeton, in condemning the Trump administration’s aggressive stance against higher education.
The overwhelming Democratic donations from Grinnell employees drew criticism from Republicans. Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann described the college’s political leaning as problematic. “The blatant biased partisanship of the Grinnell faculty does not surprise anyone,” Kaufmann wrote in an email to The S&B. “What is sad is that I’m guessing it creeps into all of their classrooms under the guise of academic freedom. This is not higher education — it is biased education.”
Among Grinnell’s departments, faculty members from anthropology, English and history exclusively donated to Democrats. Physics ranked fourth in total contributions and was the only department among the top donors to support Republicans, although donations were predominantly Democratic overall.
Grinnell’s administration said that political contributions are personal and distinct from academic responsibilities. Ellen de Graffenreid, vice president of communications and marketing, said the College adheres to academic freedom principles outlined by the American Association of University Professors in 1940, which affirm a professor’s right to discuss their subject freely in the classroom while encouraging separation between personal political views and instructional content.
“Grinnell faculty and staff have the right, shared by every Iowa citizen, to contribute to the political candidates and campaigns of their choice and to vote as their conscience directs,” de Graffenreid wrote in an email to The S&B.
