McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A Top GOP Picks, Panera Leads for Democrats
Republican and Democratic campaigns strongly disagree about all sorts of domestic and foreign policies, and – as it turns out – their restaurant choices. So says The Washington Post, whose Department of Data analyzed national campaign finance reports covering January 2023-Sept. 20, 2024, to compare the red and blue campaign staffers’ and candidates’ dining preferences.
One fun finding overall: “Fast food in general appears to be a Republican thing,” The Post concluded. As evidence, it learned that GOP campaigns outspent their Democrat counterparts by an 18:1 ratio at all fast-food restaurants. Of course, red and blue campaigners also patronized other brands among the nation’s 33,000 fast-food establishments, per Statista, as well as the less-ubiquitous but robustly growing fast-casual eateries.
The Post’s Department of Data dug broadly and deeply, examining 21,000-plus receipts from 500 beverage and food purveyors — including upscale and independent restaurants — where staffs spent at least $5,000 in campaign funds. Following are some of the analysts’ additional observations.
GOP Goes for Fast Food
Former President Donald Trump and his campaign staff have spent $31,000 of the $35,900 that federal candidates have ponied up at McDonald’s, the world’s biggest restaurant chain with 13,500 domestic locations. Further, the Chicago-based burger giant has rung up approximately 28 times more in sales from Republican campaigners compared to Democrats.
Then there’s Chick-fil-A, which has more than 3,000 U.S. restaurants. Combined Republican campaigns have enriched the Atlanta-based franchise to the tune of $200,000-plus, about 20 times the amount of expenditures by their blue opponents.
Fast-Casual and Coffee
Within the realm of fast-casual restaurants, the elephant and donkey parties spent roughly the same but their destinations diverged. Among Republicans’ top franchise picks were the Mexican brand Qdoba and sandwich specialist Jimmy John’s. (The GOP also frequented fast-casual, non-franchised Shake Shack.)
Democrats cast their franchise-fave votes for Panera (Vice President Kamala Harris’ and President Joe Biden’s campaigns spent in excess of $7,000 at Panera), Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop and Corner Bakery, all of which have U.S. franchises. They also placed orders at Le Pain Quotidien, which has franchises only outside the United States. (Chipotle and Sweetgreen, which do not offer franchises, also ranked well with Dems.)
The one consensus for campaigns on both sides of the political divide was coffee. Starbucks, which isn’t a franchise, raked in about twice as much as second-place brand Dunkin’, a franchise in the Inspire Brands’ portfolio.
American Food, Barbecue and Steak
Good ol’ American food was the top cuisine type for both parties, totaling $2.8 million at all restaurants with that classification. That represented approximately 20% of all campaign staffs’ and candidates’ combined restaurant spending. (The Post noted that Mississippi’s Patio 44, a fast-casual American franchise, was mentioned as one of the destinations of choice.)
Steakhouses ranked as the top American restaurant category for Republicans and finished in third place for Democrats. Republicans favored Ruth’s Chris and LongHorn, two Darden-franchise steakhouses.
Perhaps not surprisingly, barbecue rocks the Republicans’ world. Within that genre, the teams’ total tabs were about double that of their blue counterparts.
Ethnic Food Options
Republicans and Democrats enjoyed the Brazilian-roasted meats of Fogo de Chao. The brand has no franchises at present, but is considering franchising outside of its core countries, which include the United States.
Democrats staked out other ethnic cuisines as their territories. They spent considerably more on Mexican, Spanish and Chinese food than the GOP candidates and their staffs did, for instance.
And here’s a quirky fact: Democrats did almost all of the campaign spending at sports stadiums and arenas. Most notably, the donkey-logo party imbibed at Nationals Park, the Major League Baseball facility in Washington, D.C.
Location, Location, Location
Proximity, of course, helped Nationals Park become a hit destination, and District of Columbia restaurants as a whole raked in $7.5 million, which amounted to over half of the money in the financial reports scrutinized by The Post.
Capital Grille on Pennsylvania Avenue was a particular beneficiary, with a whopping $570,000 tallied on campaign finance logs. The franchise brand nabbed another $80,000 at its locations elsewhere in the nation. Republicans were the Capital Grille’s big spenders.
The Post report also noted that when various candidates’ campaign entourages ventured farther away from the Capitol and White House but stayed in the District, they tended to favor non-franchise Italian restaurants. Incidentally, The Post found that Republicans and Democrats had roughly equal spending on Italian and French food.
