Ted Cruz Cites Study: Zero Princeton Faculty Gave to Republicans

Not one of the 818 Princeton University faculty members matched against Federal Election Commission records made a political contribution to a Republican candidate or committee during the 2023-24 election cycle, according to a study published last Tuesday by the alumni group Princetonians for Free Speech.

Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and Princeton graduate, seized on the finding on Monday's episode of his podcast Verdict with Ted Cruz, arguing it explains a broader shift in the Democratic Party. "The center of gravity in the Democrat party has moved from the union hall to the university faculty lounge," Cruz said.

The study, conducted for the alumni group by the research firm Iron Light, found that 101 of the 818 faculty members reviewed made at least one itemized federal contribution. Of those donors, 99 leaned Democratic and two gave only to independents. By dollar amount, $300,747 went to Democratic recipients, $1,270 to independents and $0 to Republicans.

What the Princeton Faculty Donation Study Found

Cruz framed the numbers as a quiz for co-host Ben Ferguson. "There are roughly 950 full-time faculty members at Princeton. Of those 950, what percent do you think in the years 2023 and 2024 contributed to even one single Republican?" Cruz asked.

Ferguson guessed "at least eight to 10% of the faculty," adding, "And I'm pretty pessimistic."

"The answer is zero," Cruz replied. "Not a single member of the Princeton faculty."

Cruz's denominator differs from the study's. Princeton's own website lists 1,366 faculty including full-time, part-time and visiting appointments, and the study did not attempt to check all of them. Iron Light built its universe from two named rosters: 763 faculty holding a departmental appointment and 119 faculty at the School of Public and International Affairs, deduplicated to 818 people. The zero applies to that group, not to every Princeton instructor.

The pattern held across the university. All 34 academic departments recorded zero Republican contributors, including the politics department, where all five donors leaned Democratic. At the School of Public and International Affairs, 29 of 119 faculty gave a combined $103,612, every dollar of it to Democratic-classified recipients.

Limits of the Princeton Faculty Study

The study's authors were explicit about the limits of the measure. The report states that it "does not read the private beliefs of the faculty" and notes that the roughly seven in eight faculty who gave nothing, "including faculty who hold conservative views," fall outside its scope. As a check on its method, Iron Light ran the same analysis on Princeton's Board of Trustees and found $193,300 in Republican giving alongside $1.68 million to Democrats, evidence, the firm argued, that the approach can detect Republican donors when they exist.

Edward Yingling, co-founder and chairman of Princetonians for Free Speech, said in the group's release that the study "demonstrates the glaring lack of viewpoint diversity among Princeton faculty, an issue that Princeton's leadership can no longer ignore." PolitiKool is not aware of any public response from the university to the study.

Yale Faculty Donations Showed the Same Zero

Cruz read on air from a Friday column by George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, which called Princeton "effectively a closed shop for Republicans." Turley noted that Yale reached the same mark first.

In January, the Yale Daily News reviewed more than 7,000 FEC filings from 2025 listing Yale as the donor's employer. Of the 1,099 filings that listed "professor" as the occupation, 97.6 percent went to Democrats and 2.4 percent to independent candidates or groups. None went to Republicans.

The two studies are not perfectly comparable. The Yale analysis counted individual filings, while the Princeton study counted people, a distinction Iron Light flagged because a single professor's monthly recurring gift can generate a dozen separate FEC lines.

Yale defended its hiring practices at the time. "Yale hires and retains faculty based on academic excellence, scholarly distinction, and teaching achievement, independent of political views," the university told Fox News.

Cruz Ties the Numbers to the Democratic Party's Direction

Cruz used the data to argue that Democrats have traded a working-class base for an academic one. "It used to be the Democrat was a blue collar party," he said. "The Democrats have abandoned blue collar workers. Blue collar workers now are voting Republican."

He also pointed to his former thesis adviser, the conservative legal scholar Robert P. George, as the exception that proves the rule. "Robbie was my thesis advisor in college, is a great friend, is a great conservative, and he is the one outspoken conservative on the Princeton faculty," Cruz said. "When Robbie does retire, it's not clear to me there'll be even one who's willing to speak out in support of conservative values."

Turley made a similar allowance in his column, writing that political contributions are "one measure" of ideological orthodoxy and naming George among the "obvious outliers."

Cruz, who said he is the only sitting senator with a Princeton undergraduate degree, added a personal note. "My alma mater is embarrassed to me," he said. "They cannot stand that a conservative somehow escaped there."

He argued the imbalance ultimately weakens the institutions themselves. "If you must exclude anyone who disagrees from your views, what you're telling everyone is that your views are weak, that they cannot withstand challenge, they cannot withstand contest," Cruz said.

What Happens Next for Princeton

Princetonians for Free Speech says it wants Princeton's leadership to publicly acknowledge the viewpoint gap, as it says peer institutions including Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth have done. Whether the university engages with the study, or disputes its roster and methodology, remains an open question heading into an election season in which Republican pressure on elite universities has been a recurring theme.