Democrats raise more than $12M since abortion ruling leak
(NewsNation) — A revelation that the Supreme Court might be poised to overturn the landmark abortion access case Roe v. Wade was met with a massive fundraising effort from Democratic lawmakers.
Contributions to both sides already grew significantly during the 2020 election cycle and increasingly, funds are coming from small donors. OpenSecrets Deputy Research Director Pete Quist said.
“We’re seeing record numbers of contributions from small donors anyway. This is one more spark that will keep that flame going,” Quist said. “We will see more contributions from small donors this year, for a non-presidential election year, I think, than we have in any other non-presidential election year. And this is certainly one of the reasons, but it is also just in the larger context of how divided the country is.”
It didn’t take long for donations to pour in after the draft opinion penned by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was made public Monday. The Democratic National Committee sent text messages asking donors to rush $15 to the DNC with a link to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising website. Within 24 hours, they took in about $9 million. That’s compared to the website’s daily average of about $4 million.
Overall, small donors gave $12 million to pro-abortion rights groups and candidates through ActBlue.
Republicans say that isn’t indicative of a major loss at the polls.
“You’re actually seeing less of a fundraising push or flood than some on the left would have expected and hoped for and that’s actually, I think, going to play out in the midterms,” said Heritage Action spokesman Noah Weinrich.
Republican fundraising site WinRed did not immediately respond to NewsNation’s inquiry about contributions from the other side of the aisle.
Backers of both major parties say the ruling may be dominating the news cycle now, but it isn’t likely to change the course of the November midterms.
“Most voters, this is not their No. 1 issue,” Weinrich said. “It is not going to determine their vote in November and it is not going to be the fundraising boom that Democrats think it is.”
Fundraising on both sides is expected to ramp up when the final decision comes down this summer and when state abortion laws would potentially take effect.
“This is something that really fires up both sides,” The George Washington University Professor Todd Belt said. “The Republicans have always been using this or at least for the past four decades. They’re using this as one of the key issues to fire up their voting base.”
Contributions to both sides grew significantly during the 2020 election cycle.
Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Washington Women for Choice were among the top contributors to the pro-abortion rights sector during the 2021-22 election cycle.
The Susan B. Anthony List, Right to Life and National Pro-Life Alliance were among the top contributors toward the anti-abortion sector.