State Partisan Dominance and the Distribution of TANF Funds, 2000–2018

Abstract

In this field note, we examine the changing distribution of TANF spending patterns across the states. Given the important shift from the more restrictive categorical grant of AFDC to the more flexible block grant of TANF, examining patterns of spending across program categories is an important facet for understanding states’ welfare efforts. Overall, there has been a general decrease in the percentage of state TANF spending on cash assistance. Using a new measure of party dominance, we find that Democratic states initially spent a higher share of their TANF funds on cash assistance than Republican states. However, by the 2010s this partisan difference basically disappeared with Democratic states spending patterns matching those of Republican states, focusing less on cash assistance and giving greater priority to areas less reflective of TANF’s principal objectives.