Employees who work at federal government agencies are continuing their trend of overwhelmingly donating to Democrats for the 2018 election cycle, records show.
Government workers shunned Donald Trump while giving generously to Hillary Clinton's campaign during the 2016 presidential cycle, The Hill reported last October.
The publication noted that while Republicans tend to do worse with government workers, Trump received just 5 percent of all federal government donations compared to Mitt Romney's 14 percent in 2012. Government workers at 14 agencies gave a total of $2 million during the last presidential cycle with $1.9 million—or 95 percent—going to Clinton.
Despite President Trump now occupying the White House, government workers are still overwhelmingly supporting Democrats, according to a review of employee donations at a handful of agencies.
Department of Justice employees have given nearly $30,000 in contributions for the 2018 cycle to date, data that covers contributions of $200 or more from the Center for Responsive Politics shows. Of the $30,000 in contributions, $23,233 (79 percent) was given to Democrats while $4,350 (15 percent) went to Republican campaigns.
The 79 percent of DOJ employees who have given money to Democratic campaigns this cycle has dropped slightly from the 87 percent who gave to Democrats in 2016, the data shows.
Individuals at the U.S. Department of State have given $78,364 for the 2018 cycle with $74,220 of this amount given to Democrats (95 percent) and only $3,965 going to Republicans. In 2016, 93 percent of the donations from employees at the State Department ultimately ended up going to Democrats.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency workers have only contributed $9,848 this cycle, with 87 percent of the donations ($8,609) going to Democrats and 10 percent ($1,000) to Republicans. During the last election cycle, nearly $250,000 was given from EPA employees to Democrats, which constituted 96 percent of contributions from those at the agency.
At the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a total of $53,547 has been given from its employees for the 2018 cycle. Ninety percent ($47,929) has gone to Democrats while only 6 percent was donated to Republicans ($3,138).
"Government employees are, on balance, more moderate or more liberal as opposed to the general population," David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University, told the Hill last year of government worker contributions. "Not across the board, but in general."
Individuals at government agencies are also "more likely to believe in government as opposed to, let's say, a privatization program," Schultz added, "programs that we would view as hostile to government."