So, you got a match on a dating app, had enjoyable enough banter, and deemed this person worthy of at least a few hours of face-to-face time. It’s only natural you want to know as much as you can about your date; after all, they’re your potential future spouse. But what do you do when their Instagram comes up as private and their LinkedIn is non-existent? Look no further than FEC.gov.
The U.S. Federal Elections Commission was created in 1974 to enforce the laws of the Federal Campaign Elections Act. But 48 years later, its usefulness has expanded well beyond the disclosure of campaign finance information and into the realm of online dating. Here are a few crucial pieces of information you can obtain by using this unconventional method of internet sleuthing.
Political affiliation
According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, 71% of Democrats and 47% of Republicans said they probably would not consider being in a committed relationship with someone who voted for the opposing party in the 2016 presidential election. Most people are forthcoming on their dating profile about their political affiliation, but what do you do when you come across someone not offering up that information? (Or worse, declaring their stance as “moderate”).
Their FEC filings will not only show you to which political party they’ve donated, but to which specific candidates. Do with this information what you will.
Career
In the past few years, LinkedIn has become a critical social network for those looking for love. But what do you do when your crush has eschewed that professional convention and has decided to live a LinkedIn-free life? You’re in luck—when making a political donation, one of the pieces of information you have to include is your employer and occupation. Searching your date on the FEC website could tip you off to whether they work in one of your dealbreaker professions.
Disposable income
Looking up someone’s political donations isn’t going to give you quite the same idea of their finances as looking at their W2, but it will allow you to read the tea leaves. The maximum donation an individual can make to a candidate’s committee is $2,900 per year. So should you see your dating maxing out to multiple candidates, one could reasonably surmise they’re not having a ton of trouble making ends meet.
City and state of residence (past and current)
If you’ve matched with someone on a dating app, it’s a pretty safe bet you know what city and state they currently reside in. But by searching your date’s political donations, you can see where they’ve lived throughout their adult life. You can use this information to see if you’ve lived in any mutual cities or regions, potentially giving yourself a talking point if the date hits a conversational lull.
First dates elicit a wide range of emotions. If knowing a bit more about your mystery beau helps alleviate your nerves, by all means look into their FEC filings. Just don’t forget there’s always a recourse plan of action—asking your date questions directly yourself.