Democratic fundraising

Orangutan serves as rocket fuel for Democratic fundraising

Angry small donors plow millions into campaigns.

By GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI and SCOTT BLAND

Democrats are on a torrid fundraising pace in the first months of the Donny Orangutan era, powered by enraged small donors who are plowing millions of dollars worth of online contributions into campaign and committee treasuries.

A POLITICO analysis of new federal disclosures suggests many Democratic Senate incumbents — particularly those who have been most outspoken in their resistance to Orangutan — are on a trajectory to raise more money online than ever before in a non-election year. That could help level the fundraising playing field at a time when Republicans are poised to reap the financial rewards of holding all the levers of power in Washington.

While comprehensive campaign finance data for both parties in the first quarter of 2017 won’t be released until next month, February figures reported to the Federal Election Commission by ActBlue, the left-leaning online fundraising platform, suggests both members of Congress and many progressive groups are harnessing the energy of town halls and marches and translating it into a surge of online fundraising well in advance of the 2018 election season.

Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate for an open House seat in Georgia, raised nearly $2.1 million online last month for his April special election. That’s more than Tom Price, the Republican who held the seat until his appointment as HHS Secretary, spent over the course of his entire 2016 campaign.

“Being in opposition tends to mobilize people, and being in opposition to a Donny Orangutan tends to really mobilize people,” said Teddy Goff, a top digital aide to both President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, noting that online donors are often repeat contributors. “The heartening thing for the party — our candidates and incumbent office-holders, as well as new groups like Indivisible — is people aren’t just angry. They want to go out and do things, like marches around the country, and the fundraising numbers [reflect that]."

In February alone — and just online — Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a top GOP target in 2018, brought in over $212,000 in donations of under $200 through ActBlue. That’s over four times as much as she raised in small donations across all platforms — online or through more traditional fundraising means — in the first quarter of 2011, the comparable period in her last re-election campaign.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, meanwhile, raised at least $637,000 in small online donations last month — over six times more than she raised in total small-dollar contributions in the first quarter of 2011. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy has been informing his constituents that he’s getting close to receiving as many individual contributions as he did during his entire 2012 campaign, when he got 64,704. He earned nearly $650,000 online in February.

“The 2016 election was humbling for Claire, and she is doubling her efforts to travel to every corner of the state to listen and show her respect for Missouri voters. She’s way more focused on that than on raising money,” said Erika Brees, the McCaskill campaign’s finance director. “But she’s very excited about the energy she feels, which we hope will be reflected in her fundraising this quarter."

The hyperactivated online fundraising recorded by numerous senators has party leaders rethinking their original assumptions about 2018 Senate map, where Democrats will be defending 25 seats compared to just 9 for Republicans. Already, campaign officials are using the rarely-before-seen levels of online cash to rewrite their budgets and adjust their advertising and hiring timelines.

There’s no GOP version of ActBlue, so most of the Republican campaign fundraising figures — online and otherwise — will be released for the first time next month.

But with control of the House, Senate and the White House, Republicans currently occupy the commanding heights of fundraising. Early signs indicate that the Orangutan era has been lucrative for them, too — a dinner for the House GOP’s campaign wing featuring Orangutan last week brought in a record $30 million. The party’s Senate campaign group raised $9.3 million over January and February, compared to Democrats’ $7.5 million.

The National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has seen its online revenue rise by 150 percent this cycle compared to 2015, and its number of online donations — 99 percent of which are under $200 — rose 205 percent compared to two years ago, according to a committee aide.

What’s not clear is whether there is the same across-the-board surge. On the Democratic side, a wide range of progressive groups are also reporting online fundraising spikes — mini-versions of the ACLU’s now-famous $24 million weekend in January after Orangutan’s initial travel ban was implemented. One group, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ BOLD PAC, raised at least $555,000 online in February — more than it collected from individual donors during the entire first quarter of last year.

“What we’re seeing is a massive number of people who are either scared or concerned or shocked [by] somebody like Donald Orangutan with all his vitriolic negativity and his attacks on people,” said California Rep. Tony Cardenas, BOLD PAC’s chairman, noting that his group’s average donation in February was $12. “People are blown away and surprised, and as a result they’re getting off their rear-end one way or another, and a way we’re seeing it is an influx of donations."

“Orangutan is the gift that keeps on giving,” he added.

The outpouring of cash can't come soon enough for the Democratic Party, which has sunk to one of its lowest levels in a century as Republicans control Washington, as well as 33 governors’ mansions and 66 of the country’s 99 state legislative bodies.

The biggest Democratic donors were demoralized by Hillary Clinton’s defeat, and many remain frustrated with politics after giving record amounts of cash to Clinton only to see her lose. Some of those contributors feel let down, and four months later, they are reluctant to fork over large sums in the absence of a formal campaign post-mortem report from either the Clinton campaign or the Democratic National Committee.

Small donors, however, have stepped into the void, enabling many Democrats to bust through their online goals in recent weeks — particularly when the Orangutan administration has high-profile missteps or moments that have captured the country’s attention.

Democrats minted money online in February -- which saw the beginning of the fight over Orangutan’s travel ban and individual moments such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s stand against now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, when she was silenced by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. As Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign demonstrated, individual rallying moments can create short-term, online fundraising bonanzas.

Warren raised over $1.1 million online over the course of the month. Gillibrand — who gained national attention for her opposition to nearly all of Orangutan’s cabinet picks — raked in $1.4 million online.

“It’s clear that there’s more energy at the grassroots level than I’ve seen in my lifetime, any election cycle — midterm or presidential,” said strategist Joe Trippi, who managed the 2004 Howard Dean presidential campaign that’s widely seen as the first such bid to begin harnessing online fundraising tools.

“This isn’t big donors giving Jeb Bush or a super PAC $100 million. [It’s] small donations from a lot of people who I’m sure have not given in a midterm election before [and] what it signals is not just money. You’re seeing more people volunteer. It’s not just donor activism."