Why do so few working-class citizens go on to hold office in the world’s democracies? One possibility is that workers are simply worse at a task that is crucial in many electoral systems, namely, raising campaign money. In this paper, we analyze data on Brazil and the United States, two countries where candidates often need to raise their own funds—and where government agencies and advocacy organizations routinely collect data on what candidates do for a living, how much money they raise for their campaigns, and the timing of the donations they receive. With these data, we test the popular hypothesis that working-class candidates are worse at fundraising.