I can’t speak to the US context, but this is much less true in Australia, if you support a third party at least.
I can personally speak to the fact that the Australian greens regularly run races on less than $1000AUD (and I’ve heard of them running on less than $100 in rural seats). So the expected value of a donation can be significantly higher.
This probably goes much less for a donation to one of the major parties, or to a well funded minor (think Trumpet of Patriots).
Side note: High level policy positions are also significantly less “political” (for lack of a better word) here, since public servants are unelected and somewhat independent from the legislature, but there are still times when making political donations can be harmful. This is the case in some finance jobs, and I believe (read: I cannot verify) it may come up in background checks for some security and defense positions.
I can’t speak to the US context, but this is much less true in Australia, if you support a third party at least.
I can personally speak to the fact that the Australian greens regularly run races on less than $1000AUD (and I’ve heard of them running on less than $100 in rural seats). So the expected value of a donation can be significantly higher.
This probably goes much less for a donation to one of the major parties, or to a well funded minor (think Trumpet of Patriots).
Side note: High level policy positions are also significantly less “political” (for lack of a better word) here, since public servants are unelected and somewhat independent from the legislature, but there are still times when making political donations can be harmful. This is the case in some finance jobs, and I believe (read: I cannot verify) it may come up in background checks for some security and defense positions.