This paper investigates the value of firm political connections to US congressional candidates using a regression discontinuity design. In a sample of close special elections occurring at times unrelated to firm-specific economic events or broader political events, I compare the abnormal returns...

We study the relation between CEO and employee campaign contributions and find that CEO-supported political candidates receive three times more money from employees than the candidates not supported by the CEO. This relation holds around CEO departures, including plausibly exogenous departures...