Democrats Stun GOP With Whopping $166M Fundraising Haul

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Democrats are substantially out-raising Republicans as Election Day in the midterm elections gets closer.

“The total amount donated online fell by more than 12 percent across all federal Republican campaigns and committees in the second quarter compared with the first quarter,” The New York Times says, based on data originating with WinRed, a main website used by Republicans for online donations. Although financial issues like inflation continue affecting the U.S. economy, it’s not stopping Democratic donations online from growing. “Total federal donations on ActBlue, the Democratic counterpart, jumped by more than 21 percent” in what’s apparently the same period (the second quarter of this year), according to the Times. Democrats grew their federal fundraising lead over Republicans in this category (online) by over $100 million from the fourth quarter of last year to the second quarter of this one, the Times outlines. Democrats’ total lead over Republicans surpassed $166 million for the second quarter.

The Times notes that the millions raised by Trump aren’t exactly helping the broader GOP with securing desired end results, because Donald isn’t focusing his spending on going after Dems. Around the country, Trump’s gotten involved in Republican primary contests, whether through campaigning or donating millions in support of efforts to elect key primary candidates he favors. One election in which the Trump political operation poured in cash — the GOP primary race for Georgia’s governorship — ended with the former president’s pick, ex-Senator David Perdue, losing to incumbent Brian Kemp by over 50 percent. Trump’s side was barely successful in Pennsylvania, another race in which his Save America PAC spent money — Mehmet Oz, aka Dr. Oz, won the GOP primary by fewer than 1,000 votes. Individual candidates in key races — like Oz and Ohio’s J.D. Vance — are getting substantially out-raised by Dem challengers, but high-dollar spending is boosting the campaigns.

In Ohio, a major source of that spending is billionaire Peter Thiel. In Pennsylvania, it’s Oz himself, who’s already spent millions of his own cash on his efforts. Still, these financial boosts aren’t enough to eliminate the stark disparity: “The money gap is so pronounced that Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, an endangered Democratic incumbent, raised more online last quarter — $12.3 million — than the combined WinRed quarterly hauls of the Republican Senate nominees or presumptive nominees in seven key contests: Georgia, Wisconsin, Florida, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania,” according to the Times reporting. That’s a simply remarkable gap. Decision Desk HQ, a leading elections data organization, gives Warnock a slightly better chance than his Republican challenger at winning, but the eventual outcome of the race seems likely to be close, as it was when Warnock first won his position.

Per the Times, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel said at a private donor retreat in June that inflation was to blame for Republican fundraising troubles — although Democrats stand to be affected by it too but are nonetheless prevailing. These latest metrics from the Times add onto an already expansive portrait of Republican struggles: in small-dollar donations, meaning those under $200, Democrats are also way ahead of the GOP in online fundraising. Democrats clocked a small-dollar fundraising total in June that was more than twice the Republican total when comparing numbers from ActBlue and WinRed, which numerous candidates use for donations. Presumably, that’s specifically federal fundraising covered by those numbers.