Dem
47
GOP
53
Back in April, Donald Trump ordered Pam Bondi to commence an investigation of ActBlue, the main online fundraising platform for Democrats. Ostensibly, this was prompted by a preliminary investigation undertaken by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), in which the Congressman "learned" that ActBlue was being used to subvert campaign finance laws.
When we wrote this up a couple of months ago, we were unimpressed, regarding it as: (1) a halfhearted attempt to muzzle the opposition political party, and (2) a definite attempt to "win" that news cycle and to get some headlines. Here is the conclusion to that piece:
[T]he only real benefit here is to produce some "Democrats are crooks" headlines and propaganda for the MAGA base. OK, fine, but there is such a thing as the Streisand effect. The DNC is pitching a very loud fit about all of this and, as readers can certainly guess, is already fundraising off of it. The first solicitation went out about 20 minutes after the XO was announced. We would bet large sums of money that ActBlue had a great day yesterday, and will have a great week. And we would also guess, with some confidence, that "Donald Trump is literally trying to shut us down" will resonate more with voters and donors on the blue side of the aisle than Manufactured Story #13,378 about alleged Democratic malfeasance will resonate with voters and donors on the red side of the aisle.
We wish we could have bet those large sums of money, though we doubt anyone would have taken that bet, because that prediction was hardly Nostradamus-level stuff. No, it was more like predicting that the new Jurassic Park film will not be nominated for Best Picture this year.
The fundraising totals for Q2 (in others words, the roughly 3 weeks before the Trump investigation order, and the roughly 9 weeks after) are in, and they are substantial: The platform took in $393 million. That's the best Q2 in a non-election year it's ever had. By way of comparison, in Q2 of Joe Biden's first year in office, ActBlue's haul was $289 million (roughly $350 million, adjusted for inflation).
Perhaps Bondi will eventually complete her investigation and announce the results, giving ActBlue another shot in the arm. Or maybe the administration will learn from its mistakes, and the investigation will be quietly forgotten. In any case, it's clear that when it comes to the 2026 campaign (and the handful of 2025 campaigns), money is not likely to be a problem for the blue team.
However, the type of people who are making donations in Q2 of the year before an election are also the type of people who are guaranteed to vote (probably early, probably via mail). The question will be whether the Democratic-leaning voters who are much less invested, and who would never consider giving their money right now (or maybe ever) will show up. They did in November of 2018 and 2020, but not in November of 2024. (Z)