Which industries increased or decreased corporate donations to Democratic candidates between 2020 and 2024?

1. Why precise industry “up or down” claims are hard to draw from the supplied sources

The organizations most likely to produce the exact comparison you asked for—OpenSecrets, FollowTheMoney, and similar election-data trackers—are cited across the results, but the snippets and pages in this set present either 2024 snapshots, general top-donor lists, or outside-spending tallies rather than a side-by-side, industry-by-industry delta between 2020 and 2024 for corporate donations to Democrats specifically ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}. Therefore a definitive list saying “Industry X increased giving to Democrats while Industry Y decreased” cannot be confidently asserted from these documents alone (not found in current reporting) ^{[1] [2]}.

2. What the available sources do say about who gave in 2024

OpenSecrets pages included in the search set are the canonical repositories for party and industry donor breakdowns; the Democratic Party contributors and party fundraising pages provide 2024 cycle totals and industry profiles but the excerpts here are snapshots and metadata rather than analytic comparisons to 2020 ^{[2] [6]}. Outside‑spending and top-donor pages also document which organizations and mega-donors dominated 2024, especially super PAC and “dark money” inflows, but again they are focused on levels in 2024 rather than year-over-year changes ^{[5] [3]}.

3. Industry-level signals visible in these results — themes, not exact deltas

Several sources in the set highlight consistent themes: the financial sector remains a major donor source overall and heavily funds Republican-aligned efforts in 2024 according to related analysis ^[7]. Technology and big‑money individual donors (some of whom back Democrats) played oversized roles in 2024 super‑PAC funding according to the Brennan Center and other trackers ^[8]. Manufacturing PAC activity is documented as substantial and bipartisan but with detailed PAC tallies for 2023–24 rather than a 2020 comparison ^[9]. These are directional signals—finance strong for GOP, tech and some liberal ideological funds toward Democrats—but they stop short of giving a clean 2020→2024 change figure by industry ^{[7] [8] [9]}.

4. What other reporting in the set says about mega‑donors and outside spending pressure

Analysts in the provided material emphasize a dramatic rise in megadonor and billionaire-family spending in 2024, concentrated heavily on Republican or pro‑Trump outside groups; Americans for Tax Fairness and the Brennan Center both document much larger sums from top donors in 2024 versus 2020, which skews the overall flow of corporate‑style influence even if corporate PACs themselves show different patterns ^{[8] [10]}. That context matters: industry-by-industry shifts can be masked by a surge of very large individual or nonprofit channel gifts ^{[8] [10]}.

5. How to get the exact industry increases/decreases you requested

The search results point to the exact tools you’ll need to produce the 2020→2024 comparison: OpenSecrets’ industry profiles, party contributor pages, and outside‑spending donor lists, plus FollowTheMoney for state-levels ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [11]}. Using those databases to run a side‑by‑side report (aggregate corporate PAC + company giving to Democratic candidates in 2020 cycle vs. 2024 cycle) will produce the precise up/down numbers. The provided snippets do not contain those computed deltas themselves (not found in current reporting).

6. Bottom line and recommended next step

From the materials provided, we can say broadly that finance remained a dominant donor bloc and that 2024 saw a surge in megadonor and outside‑group money—much of it favoring Republicans—while tech and liberal‑leaning individual donors remained important to Democrats ^{[7] [8] [10]}. To produce a reliable list of which industries increased or decreased corporate donations to Democratic candidates between 2020 and 2024, consult OpenSecrets’ industry-by-industry contribution tools and export or query their 2020 and 2024 cycle data for a direct comparison; the pages cited in the search results are the right starting points ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]}.