As Democrats struggle to chart their party’s future amid competing visions for countering President Donald Trump, recently released campaign finance filings show that Democratic fundraising is more or less keeping pace with Republicans.
Multiple people familiar with Democratic fundraising have complained to the press both on and off the record that donors are frustrated with the state of the party and are opting to hold onto their money or direct it elsewhere until leadership straightens things out. Prominent members of the party have publicly complained that liberals lack a compelling message to appeal to voters. Federal Election Commission records released in late March, however, show that the political committees responsible for electing Democrats to Congress, alongside the Democratic National Committee, are all pulling in roughly the same amount of donations as their Republican counterparts.
“This is worse than 2016,” one major Democratic donor who spoke to The Hill anonymously said in February. “Our party is so weak and so diminished.”
“They want us to spend money, and for what? For no message, no organization, no forward thinking,” another donor said. “The thing that’s clear to a lot of us is that the party never really learned its lesson in 2016. They worked off the same playbook and the same ineffective strategies and to what end?”
While protests following Trump’s 2024 electoral victory were notably muted compared to those at the start of his first presidency, Democratic donors, specifically small-dollar donors, didn’t appear to share that demoralization. ActBlue, the primary payment platform used by Democratic political campaigns and liberal activist organizations, processed nearly three times more donations following Trump’s 2024 election as it did following his 2016 victory, records show.
ActBlue’s 2024 year-end report shows that it had an intake of roughly $42 million in donations between November 26 and December 31 of that year, according to the FEC. During the same period after the 2016 election, ActBlue processed just $14.6 million in contributions.
Democratic donors and fundraisers told CNN in mid-March that they were backing off supporting the party’s bid to win the Senate during the next election cycle, partially over discontent with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)’s leadership and partially because of the opportunities for pickups in 2026 are so slim. While it may be true that some prominent left-of-center donors are pivoting away from the upper chamber, campaign finance records show that Democrats are continuing to rake in cash.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the primary PAC responsible for assisting Democratic Senate candidates, pulled in $6.9 million in February, according to records released on March 20. Its Republican counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, secured $7.9 million in contributions. The DSCC had a nearly $10 million advantage in cash on hand but was carrying about $2.5 million more in debt than its Republican rival.
Things are looking slightly better for Democrats on the House side. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which handles lower chamber races for the party, raised $11.1 million in February — almost $2 million more than what the National Republican Congressional Committee secured. House Democrats also had a cash on hand advantage, boasting $26.7 million in the bank compared to the $15 million held by the NRCC. Republicans maintain control of the House by a margin of 218 to 213, with four vacant seats. The slim margin in the chamber has many Democrats optimistic about flipping it in 2026.
While money may be flowing their way, Democrats lack a sense of direction. Fifty Democratic leaders interviewed by the New York Times gave varying accounts of what policies the party should prioritize, why it was defeated by Trump, and how it should tailor its messaging going into 2026.
“We’re not going to go after every single issue,” Schumer told the New York Times. “We are picking the most important fights and lying down on the train tracks on those fights.”
Others in the party, however, are reluctant to abandon their principles on abortion or LGBT issues and fear that the progressive base may revolt if they do so.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin, meanwhile, contends that Democrats don’t have a policy problem — rather, they simply need to improve their messaging.
“The policies that we support and the message that we have [are] not wrong,” he said. “It is a messaging problem and a brand problem. Those voters are not connecting our policies with their lives.”
Some are not so optimistic.
“We have no coherent message,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) told the New York Times.
Just because Democratic donors remain engaged, however, doesn’t mean that the party is on track for an electoral resurgence in 2026. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both significantly outraised Trump in their races against him, only for Republicans to secure wins on election nights. Individuals donating through ActBlue are typically committed partisans, and their enthusiasm is not always reflected in the general electorate. Cash can, however, be a deciding factor in razor-thin elections.
Spending wars over tight off-year elections this spring have already begun. Liberals including George Soros and billionaire Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) are pumping tens of millions of dollars into a Wisconsin special election to fill a seat on the state’s supreme court with a liberal judge. Right-wing donors such as Elon Musk and Diane Hendricks are pouring in comparable amounts of cash to support the conservative candidate. In Florida, meanwhile, Democratic candidates contesting vacant House seats in an upcoming special election have raised millions more than their Republican competitors. The cash advantage, however, could mean little, as both districts have a strongly Republican partisan tilt.
As special elections pass and midterm season begins, Republicans have a handful of not-so-secret weapons at their disposal.
The Republican National Committee, for instance, holds $55.8 million in its reserves compared to the $16.7 million held by the Democratic National Committee. Trump has also assured congressional Republicans that he intends to tap into his leftover campaign fund, which he claims is valued at over half a billion dollars, to assist them, according to CNN. Musk reportedly is expected to dip into his considerable wealth to help Republicans in 2026 as well.
While campaign finance filings provide some insight into the resources available to both parties, many of the operations typically associated with political campaigns happen outside the purview of the FEC. Much of the political machinery of the Left and Right is housed within 501(c)(4) dark money groups that have anonymous donors, don’t necessarily need to file campaign finance reports, and engage in traditional campaign activities such as get-out-the-vote efforts and advertising.
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Some of the largest left-of-center dark money networks, such as those controlled by Tides and Arabella Advisors, command billions of dollars in assets. The public, however, often isn’t privy to how these assets are deployed until well after elections are decided since 501(c)(4) groups operate on a delayed reporting schedule. The most recent information for many of these groups is from 2023.
Indeed, some Democratic donors told CNN that they plan to route their contributions toward activist groups rather than political campaigns, setting the groundwork for a potential flood of dark money into the 2026 elections.
