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Political Giving by Retired U.S. General and Flag Officers

Bibliographic Data

ID7472174
AuthorsNeil N Snyder (0000-0002-7390-2967, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume52
Issue1
Pages304-330
Publication date2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArmed Forces & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0095-327X • E-ISSN: 1556-0848
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0095327x241277209
OpenAlexW4402588639
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited24

Why do retired U.S. General and Flag Officers (GOFOs) donate to political causes? I argue that retired GOFOs likely sort between nondonors, partisan donors, and corporate political action committee donors. Using a novel data set of all former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Combatant Commanders from 1979 to 2022 and drawing on data from the Federal Election Commission, I examine the conditions associated with increased likelihood of GOFO political giving. The results suggest that the majority of retired GOFOs are nongivers. However, retired GOFOs are more likely to donate to Republicans than to Democrats, and GOFOs are more likely to donate to Republicans during U.S. presidential elections. I find strong partisan trends in GOFOs’ political giving, and the results provide new insights into the conditions under which retired American GOFOs take domestic political action

Algebra over a field · Flag (linear algebra · Political science · Politics · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Mathematics · Psychology

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Unique citing works2
Citations per year0,4
Citation span2021 - 2025 (5)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 2

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