Democrat Fundraising Surges in the First Quarter of the 2020 Election Year

ActBlue, the online donor portal used by various Democrat organizations and candidates, saw $533 million in donations during the first three months of the year, marking the “largest quarter for small-dollar donors on ActBlue by every metric,” the organization announced on Monday.

“The first quarter of 2020 saw unprecedented organizing, in ways both expected and unpredictable,” the platform, which serves as a one-stop-shop for Democrat voters, detailed in an announcement.

The organization raised $533 million from 4.3 million donors in the first three months of the year, with an average donation size of $30.38. Nearly one-third of those donors were first time donors through ActBlue.

It marked “the largest quarter for small-dollar donors on ActBlue by every metric,” including contributions, dollars raised, unique donors, first-time donors, and candidates and organizations using the platform:

Per ActBlue:

To put the Q1 donor number in perspective, in all of 2019 we saw 6 million unique donors, which was more than we had seen in the entire 2018 election cycle. After 2019’s rapid growth, to see such a large percentage of new donors give in Q1 was a real sign that this movement is still growing and getting more people off the sidelines. More than 7.6 million people have given so far this cycle, 4.5 million of them for the first time, and 44.6% of those first-time have already given more than once! The presidential primary helped activate millions of people and built a culture of small-dollar giving that we hope will continue to expand and grow.

The donations included $121.3 million to congressional candidates, with contributions to House candidates increasing “almost 50% compared to the first quarter of 2018.”  According to ActBlue, donations to Senate candidates increased 100 percent. This comes as Democrats angle to maintain their House majority and take the Senate.

“Through Q1 2020 we’ve already seen more contributions, donors, first-time donors, and candidates and organizations using ActBlue than the entire 2018 cycle,” the organization added.

Notably, the first quarter also included the massive fundraising hauls from former Democrat presidential candidates. Those include Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), former Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and the party’s presumptive nominee, Joe Biden (D), all of whom brought in “a combined $162 million in January and February alone,” according to Politico.

While Republicans have yet to establish an online fundraising powerhouse as effective as ActBlue, the GOP, alongside President Trump’s reelection campaign, raised $212 million in the first quarter of the big election year, with the Republican National Committee (RNC) raising $24 million in March alone.