Republican online fundraising has fallen sharply behind the Democrats, leaving the party increasingly dependent on Donald Trump and a small group of wealthy donors to finance its campaigns.
Federal campaign filings show that about 1.5 million donors have given through WinRed, the main Republican digital fundraising platform, so far this cycle. At the same point in 2022, the figure was about 2.2 million.
By contrast, the number of donors using ActBlue, the leading Democratic platform, has risen from 4.9 million to roughly 6.6 million – an increase of about a third.
The gap is illustrated by James Talarico, a Democratic candidate in Texas, who has attracted about as many ActBlue donors this cycle as all Republican candidates and committees combined have secured through WinRed.
Republicans have maintained an overall cash advantage, largely because of major contributions to super PACs. Elon Musk alone has given almost half a billion dollars this cycle. But the candidates themselves have raised comparatively little, and cannot access the same funding advantages as outside groups.
House and Senate candidates are particularly exposed. Unlike super PACs, they face strict limits on individual contributions and need a broad base of donors. Their weaker fundraising also limits access to lower-cost broadcast advertising rates available to candidates and parties, enabling Democrats to run almost as many adverts despite having less money overall.
Republican donors increasingly centred on Trump
Republican digital strategists say the party has repeatedly appealed to the same supporters without doing enough to recruit new donors.
“We beat the absolute hell out of low-dollar donors with texts and emails without expanding our [donor lists], and now no one pays attention,” said Wesley Donehue, a South Carolina-based Republican digital strategist.
Fundraising through WinRed remains heavily centred on Mr Trump and the official Republican committees. Of the nearly 1.5 million donors recorded on the platform this cycle, about 324,000 – just over 22 per cent – gave only to Mr Trump’s groups and not to another candidate or committee.
A further 39 per cent gave to both Mr Trump and at least one other Republican. Taken together, about three in five WinRed donors have contributed to the president, even though he is not on the ballot and cannot run for president again.
Mr Trump has continued fundraising from the White House through his Never Surrender leadership political action committee, formed from his 2024 campaign committee, as well as two joint fundraising committees from his earlier presidential campaigns.
His super PAC, MAGA Inc, and its affiliates have spent $296 million this cycle, making them among the biggest spenders in the midterm elections. The group faced pressure from some Republicans earlier in the cycle to become involved sooner.
“Candidates are not investing the time and resources in programs that grow the donor lists and attract their supporters into the ecosystem. Instead, they just barrage previous donors with ongoing requests for donation,” said Eric Wilson, a veteran Republican digital strategist and executive director of the Center for Campaign Innovation.
“Credit to the Trump team — they brought new people into the ecosystem, and those people continue to give to them,” he added.
Democrats build wider fundraising networks
ActBlue’s advantage reflects a more decentralised Democratic fundraising operation, in which individual campaigns and political groups develop their own donor lists and digital programmes.
Almost all of the leading Democratic online fundraisers this year are Senate candidates in competitive contests. The 20 biggest ActBlue fundraisers include former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg’s leadership PAC and Senator Mark Kelly’s campaign committee.
Democratic candidates considering higher office can use established fundraising operations to support candidates in battleground races while continuing to expand their own networks. Mr Kelly, for example, used Republican attacks over his military service to raise money for his campaign and assist Democrats elsewhere.
Mr Wilson said Republicans lacked comparable coordination. “Any time a Democrat announces they’re running for reelection, that week every Democrat in the Senate is sending a message to their list raising money for that person,” he said.
Republicans initially viewed their digital fundraising deficit as a technological problem. WinRed was launched in 2019 to provide a central platform similar to ActBlue, which had given Democrats a significant advantage in the late 2010s.
Republican strategists now say the party’s digital infrastructure has improved, but its fundraising methods have not kept pace. The decline in non-Trump donors leaves the party with a smaller grassroots base as it begins looking for a new national standard-bearer ahead of 2028.
