September 19, 2020

After RBG’s Death, Democrats Are Donating Record Amounts

ActBlue raised a staggering $56 million yesterday alone.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks during a discussion on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020. AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

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When news broke that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died, the first instinct of many Democratic donors was to open their wallets—in the first hour after her death became public, Democratic fundraising outfit ActBlue said it raised $6.2 million, and the following hour $6.3 million. The blistering pace continued overnight and through Saturday afternoon had raised a total of $56 million.

ActBlue raises money for campaigns and PACs, so it will be a while before it shakes out exactly which groups or candidates are benefitting from the surge in donor interest, but the Get Mitch or Die Trying, a campaign organized by the Pod Save America hosts, claimed it had raised $13 million through ActBlue by early afternoon on Saturday.

The group notably does not actually target Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in his reelection bid against Democrat Amy McGrath, but rather sends money to 13 key races where Democrats have the best chance of flipping a seat. 

For some context, in 2018, the average winning Senate campaign cost about $15.7 million, so $13 million in 18 hours is a tremendous haul for Senate Democrats.

While the money may not stop McConnell from pushing through a floor vote on a Trump nominee for the Senate before the election, that hasn’t stopped Democrats (and some Republicans) from quickly jumping on Ginsburg’s death as a fundraising opportunity. In fact, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa), launched her first appeal even before Trump was informed of Ginsburg’s death.

Notably, all of this fundraising focuses on relatively small dollar amounts—campaigns and regular PACs are limited to donations of just $2,800. As the fight in the Senate develops over the next few weeks, a large part of the battle will be the television ad war, which will likely be funded by dark money groups, on both sides, who can rely on deep-pocketed donors who have no limits on how much they can give. Already, by Saturday morning, the sense that the fight would hinge largely on money was striking, with public statements over preparations for the fight sounding more like a high-stakes auction: Demand Justice, a progressive dark money group founded by a former Biden aide, pledged to spend $10 million to block any Trump nomination, and a spokesperson for Judicial Watch, a conservative dark money group, told the New York Times, “We will match their $10 million and whatever it takes.”

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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