The Base Isn’t Buying What the DCCC Is Selling— Small-Dollar Donors Are Ditching The Dead Weight

Follow the Money— It’s Flowing Toward The Future

The Democrats' past and the party's future

The other day, we saw how only corrupt lobbyists and corporate donors contribute to the financially struggling DCCC anymore. The party’s base is moving left while the leaders of the party establishment continue inching in a more corporate-aligned direction. Yesterday, John McCormick and Anthony DeBarros reported that even decentDemocrats in desperate need of campaign cash— they used Marcy Kaptur (OH)— as an example, are having a hard time raising funds. She will need millions to defend her Toledo-centered seat against the GOP next year, which is likely to try too gerrymander her out of a job. So far, she’s raised just $678,667.

Meanwhile, AOC, who has no serious reelection challenge, “has raised almost 23 times as much for her campaign committee. The $15.4 million she has collected makes her the biggest House fundraiser this year, nearly doubling the total of the chamber’s most powerful member, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)… The contrast between the two women highlights how Democratic small-dollar donors, an increasingly important group as more fundraising moves online, often are biased in their support of ideological favorites rather than focusing on just those in competitive races.”

Imagine that! Donors who dare to want to support candidates who are fighting for working families and who oppose genocide in Palestine and who back Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and taxing the ultra-rich— rather than funneling cash to milquetoast incumbents who can’t inspire anyone beyond K Street. Maybe if more Democrats acted like leaders instead of placeholders, small-dollar donors wouldn’t be so “biased.” The truth is, the base is starting to fundamentally pull away from subsidizing cowards and corporatists. Bernie has taught younger and also more politicized Democrats to  invest in a movement, not a machine that doesn't know it’s already rusting into irrelevance.

McCormick and Anthony DeBarros noted that “among the 10 incumbent Democrats who raised the most from individual donors this year, six are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.” Aside from AOC, that includes cutting edge progressives Ilhan Omar (MN), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Greg Casar (TX) and Summer Lee (PA).

Democratic candidates who take contributions from the AIPAC/DMFI genocide caucus— like Beth Davidson and Jessica Reinmann in NY-17 (a heavily Jewish district) and DCCC faves like Janelle Stelson (PA-10) and Yadira Caraveo (CO-08) are being passed over by small dollar donors, who are gravitating towards anti-genocide candidates like Donavan McKinney (MI), Saikat Chakrabarti (CA), Elijah Manley (FL) and Oliver Larkin (FL).

Some issues just cannot be compromised about; genocide is one of them. By supporting genocide and making common cause with AIPAC and the Likud war criminals— House Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries ($1,742,105-NY), Josh Gottheimer ($2,001,136-NJ), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (1,038,534-FL), Nancy Pelosi ($617,270-CA), Pete Aguilar ($913,199-CA), Steny Hoyer ($1,820,994-MD), Ritchie Torres ($1,497,402-NY), Brad Schneider ($1,301,534-IL), Jared Golden ($817,681-ME), Janelle Byrum ($3,563,367-OR), Glenn Ivey ($7,257,083-MD), Haley Stevens ($5,480,017), George Latimer ($19,102,140), Angie Craig ($456,703), Don Davis ($3,415,782-NC), Shontel Brown ($4,325,674-OH), Jimmy Gomez ($2,697,740-CA), Valerie Foushee ($2,871,845-NC), Sara Elfreth ($4,831,778-MD), Lois Frankel ($675,354-FL), Brad Sherman ($694,943-CA), Henry Cuellar ($2,076,130-TX), Grace Meng ($619,633-NY), Chris Pappas ($523,333-NH), Jake Auchincloss ($694,051-MA), Wesley Bell ($12,281,104-MO), Adam Smith ($499,998-WA), Greg Meeks ($690,407-NY), and Maxine Dexter ($607,085-OR)— the party is being driven apart by those who tolerate and support genocide and those who oppose it.

Every good Democrat should be striving for one of these TrackAIPAC memes-- rather than for endorsements from AIPAC, DMFI or even J Street:

Democrats must learn to just say NO to blood money

But while genocide is a red line for many progressives, the movement’s appeal isn’t just about foreign policy. It’s even more about vision and courage on the domestic front, where establishment Democrats continue to offer little more than polite austerity and reheated Clintonism. Progressives are also the only faction of the Democratic Party pushing real solutions to the crises crushing working people. While corporate-backed centrists mouth platitudes about affordability, progressives are fighting unapologetically for universal healthcare, rent control, student debt cancellation, labor rights and public power. The establishment’s refusal to embrace these ideas— let alone organize around them— has turned many of their campaigns into empty rituals, devoid of purpose or inspiration.

Small-dollar donors are neither confused nor “biased.” They’re wide awake. They understand that it’s not enough to merely “hold the seat” if the person sitting in it won’t fight for you. The progressive bench— from rising stars like Summer Lee and Delia Ramirez to insurgents like Donavan McKinney, Oliver Larkin and Saikat Chakrabarti— represents the only part of the Democratic coalition actually offering a livable future. Voters are sending their money— and their hopes— where the fight is real.