Sam Rick says dating in D.C. was a little bit easier during the 2016 primary. There were basically two camps you belonged to as a liberal in the vastly blue city: team Bernie or team Hillary (and perhaps the occasional supporter of former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and his guitar).

But this campaign is different. A whopping 18 candidates are currently contending for the nomination. With so many choices, Rick says, “it’s surprising to me how dogmatic I am about my candidate and in seeking out partners that agree with me in this primary.”

Rick, 29, is firmly in Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s camp. She supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign and says she was more willing to date a supporter of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders back then.

She concedes she’ll occasionally go out with a Sanders supporter. But she says there’s a reason the odds are slim. “Nine times out of 10, it turns into a very big argument,” she sighs. “I’ve been on dates where by the end of the night, it’s completely ruined. I know where it’s going to go—best to just avoid it.”

Rick is upfront now about what’s she’s looking for on dating apps—her Hinge profile says she’s seeking “a gregarious dork who’s really into small things and passionate about them and is also voting for Elizabeth Warren.”

She describes how she views dating various supporters of other primary candidates by placing the candidates themselves on a spectrum. “At one end are a variety of Republicans,” she says. “And then a little step beyond that and you’ve got [billionaire activist] Tom Steyer. And then you’ve got the lower tier people like [Hawaii Congresswoman] Tulsi Gabbard and [entrepreneur] Andrew Yang.”

She’s got some choice thoughts for folks supporting other candidates as well:

• South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg: “Do you live in the West Wing?”
• Former Vice President Joe Biden: “Oh my god. That’s an immediate swipe left.”
• California Senator Kamala Harris: “Maybe if I met them organically and they were awesome.”
• New Jersey Senator Cory Booker: “Maybe if someone was really into him but that’s kind of weird because he’s so low in the polls.”

Serena, a senior at the University of Maryland who grew up in Silver Spring and asked that we not use her last name for privacy reasons, agrees. She also prefers to date people with the same candidate preference (she’s supporting Warren).

Serena says she’d pause before going on dates with people who support other primary candidates like Gabbard and Buttigieg. “I’m more wary of them,” she says. “It’s not a total deal breaker, but it’s a point against them.”

Katherine, a student at The George Washington University, calls politics in D.C. a “mixture of fun and exasperation”—people are so open to talk politics, but it can become intense quickly. She also requested referring to her by her first name only since she views dating as a private issue.

She supports Buttigieg (“he can appeal to more than just Democrats”) and says that, while she’s willing to go on dates with people supporting other candidates, impressions matter. She recalls a particularly cringeworthy date with a Kamala Harris staffer (“he was actually an intern”) who talked nonstop about his job and was miffed she wasn’t supporting his boss.

“He didn’t necessarily turn me completely off to Kamala but I can’t stop associating her with that date,” Katherine says.

At least Buttigieg and Harris have made the cut for every televised debate. Nawaid Ladak says it’s a little bit different when your candidate isn’t polling in the top five.

Ladak, 31, supports Colorado Senator Michael Bennet but has no issue dating supporters of other candidates. “I mean, he’s polling at less than 1 percent,” Ladak says. “Some of the people in D.C. may even be like, ‘Who’s that?’” He says knowing which candidate a person supports doesn’t cloud his judgment, “but does give me some insight into what that person values.”

Stef Woods, a lecturer at American University specializing in sexuality and Gen Z, cautions against stereotyping supporters of candidates when dating. “No supporter of a candidate is a monolith,” Woods says.

Perhaps no sub-group of supporters has been caricatured as much as the “Bernie Bro.” DCist heard from a lot of Warren supporters via a Twitter callout saying they have a rule against dating said bros.

Woods says that so-called “Bernie Bros” have a reputation among some for online misogyny, but warns against believing that stereotype for all fans of the Vermont senator.

“It’s not because of the candidate they support, it’s because of what’s being done or not done or said or not said in supporting that candidate,” she says.

Marlon, 24, appreciates that sentiment. He’s a Sanders supporter dating someone on team Warren (he asked to go by his first name only to keep his relationship private). He says it was challenging at the beginning, but they’ve learned to make it work.

He says the Bernie bro caricature is overblown and calls it an easy way to criticize someone online. When someone in real life calls him that particular moniker, it generally means “they’re not really listening or trying to understand where you’re coming from,” he says.

Eric Peterson, 48, works as a diversity and inclusion consultant who is part of the #KHive, supporting Harris. He agrees the “Bernie bro” persona isn’t always deserved.

“A lot of Bernie supporters are lovely people but there is this persona of your typical Bernie supporter that if you don’t support Bernie, you’re an evil person,” he says. “And I don’t want to date anyone who told me I was an evil person.”

Peterson says he wouldn’t date a Trump supporter (“that’s a bridge too far for me”) but is open to dating supporters of other primary candidates as long as they don’t try to convince him to change his pick. “That would be a deal breaker and just a mood killer,” he says.

According to Woods, 51 percent of the 18-35 demographic in D.C. is single, which can lead to daters feeling like there’s an unlimited amount of fish in the sea.

“I think it gives the opportunity to view relationship choices in very simplistic terms,” Woods says, because “there’s always someone behind the next swipe or in the next bar.” Woods says this could contribute to an intense vetting of paramours by political proxy.

“You’re on an app and you’re seeing how many people there are, if you turn and say, ‘Well, they don’t agree on this issue or on this candidate, I’m not going to date them,’” she says.

Woods argues that although a larger dating pool means people can be more selective in who they choose, political similitude isn’t always an indicator of a good match.

“If the goal is a long-term relationship,” she says, “then it’s not about how you work well when things are good, it’s about how you communicate and compromise and get past things that are bad or uncomfortable.”

Not to mention, she says, dating someone with identical political beliefs can be lackluster. “To say we just want to date ourselves is difficult,” Woods says. “Isn’t part of what dating should be how someone compliments us? Not someone who is a mirror image of us and our beliefs.”

Kat Haselkorn works at Three Day Rule as a matchmaker on the East Coast. She conducts in-depth interviews with clients to get to know them and what qualities they’re looking for in a partner, including political affiliation.

“It’s funny because in D.C., people will talk for maybe 10 minutes about politics and what it means to them and what they believe in, what their family and friends believe,” she explains. “They really get into the nitty gritty … When I’m talking to clients in Philly, Boston, and Chicago, we’ll kind of gloss over it.”

Haselkorn says political preferences is the most common deal breaker she hears in D.C., seconded by whether someone has a passport. “People will say, ‘oh it’s a deal breaker…because travel is so important to me and I want someone who’s worldly’,” she explains.

She says occasionally primary candidate preferences will come up if there’s a client who “really, really cares about politics.” But for the most part, Haselkorn thinks it’s the level of caring about politics that people are trying to match.

“It’s less about finding someone who supports exactly what you support or believes exactly what you believe but more so about finding someone who’s mental energy towards politics matches yours,” she explains.

Ken Knight Jr., 36, agrees. He’s a nanny and personal assistant who moved to the D.C. area a few months ago from New York.

He feels the stakes are too high in the 2020 election not to pay attention. “If I’ve gone on five dates since being here, three of the guys didn’t even watch politics,” he says, exasperated. “It blew my mind. You live in this city—it should be the only thing you discuss!”

Knight says he minds less who someone supports—just that they’re politically engaged.

He supports Warren but after some thought, he says he would date a Sanders supporter. “With a Bernie bro, it’s always a great conversation,” he chuckles.

“I respect people’s decisions,” Knight explains. “Everybody has a reason why they’re voting…for the most part, I respect that. But I really want you to be able to back that up. I can’t imagine telling someone I wouldn’t date them because they’re into a certain candidate.”

Self-selecting by political preference may make people feel more secure ahead of a date. But it’s not always a foolproof method.

Rick recently matched with someone who passed her Warren litmus test. “He told me that if Warren asked him to walk in front of traffic, he would,” she says.

Politically, he was a promising match. But the date arrived an hour late and didn’t seem to appreciate Rick’s sarcastic humor. They did not go out again.