Digital fundraising for Democratic candidates outpaced Republicans in April, as traditional fundraising efforts have been interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows.
ActBlue, the online fundraising platform for the Democratic Party, raised $141 million in April — marking one of its top months since its founding in 2004. WinRed, the Republican Party’s competing platform founded in 2019, raised $60 million in April — its largest monthly total. (RELATED: ‘He Gives Up Too Easy!’ — Trump Mocks Bernie Sanders Over Losing Democratic Nomination Again)
Fundraising for the 2020 election was mostly halted in March as the coronavirus spread, then picked back up in April through digital platforms, the Washington Post reported.
“What is encouraging to me is not just seeing things coming back, but that we’re also seeing growth,” Erin Hill, ActBlue’s executive director said. “This is not a new moment that the movement is adapting to. Candidates have been building robust, resilient small-dollar online communities for years now, over several elections.”
WinRed President Gerrit Lansing remained optimistic, noting that more than 60,000 donors in April were converted to volunteers to fundraise for GOP candidates.
“The GOP enthusiasm is a lot stronger than people realize and it’s showing in the conversion rates [from donors to volunteers] and the overall numbers,” Lansing said. “That underlines the energy out there that they obviously want to donate but they want to go a bigger step and volunteer their time.”
For years, Democrats raised huge amounts of money for liberal candidates through ActBlue.@realDonaldTrump recognized the need to compete, so we launched @WINRED.
It’s been a huge success – on pace for $400 MILLION in the first year!https://t.co/YcgWxktNbS
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) May 15, 2020
The GOP has a slight edge over the Democratic Party in cash on hand for the 2020 election at $187 million to $167 million, according to opensecrets.org.