Senator Young & Rep. Emmer: The GOP Fundraising Myth and the Change in 2020
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There once was a myth that Republicans couldn't raise money online. Everyone from candidates to operatives to the media bought into it - mostly because it was easier than fixing the actual problem and, frankly, ActBlue appeared too dominant.
That's all changed now.
Our two committees, in charge of electing Republicans to the House and Senate, have radically transformed themselves the last few cycles and proven massive sums can be raised online. It took years of consistent investment, steady digital expertise and strong leadership.
The NRSC and the NRCC will both easily raise more online in a single month this Fall than we did in entire years previously. In fact, the digital operation of both our committees will pay for the majority of all expenses this year. This was inconceivable until recently.
Our success online is now translating to success online for our candidates - thanks to WinRed, which celebrated its first birthday recently. In just 12 months our committees have been able to conduit over $25M to the top races we need to both grow the majority in the Senate and win back the House from Nancy Pelosi.
There's a double impact to this money we've sent to our key races. Online fundraising doesn't just boost revenue, but it makes every part of a campaign better. You gain valuable data about who you need to communicate with, all donors are voters and it makes a campaign focus on people first. Those are big positives that come from building an online donation machine - a machine our committees can help pour rocket fuel into every day via WinRed.
WinRed's compliance architecture makes it easy to conduit this money. But their marketing features and pace of innovation is what already separates them from ActBlue - and we believe will allow us to further separate from our Democrat peers in the months and years to come.
For instance, of the $450 million WinRed raised in their first 12 months, $33 million of that total came from a single feature that ActBlue doesn't even have: Upsells. Upsells allow us to show a donor who just contributed a new ask - buy a hat, become a recurring donor, donate to a key race - even opt-in to become a volunteer.
As legendary hockey coach Scotty Bowman said "I found out that if you are going to win games, you had better be ready to adapt." It appears this is where ActBlue is coming up short.
While WinRed has Upsells, a brand new money bomb option, zero-touch merchandise fulfillment and a tech team that can quickly turn around what our Digital Departments dream up, ActBlue suddenly appears...slow and behind the times.
Establishing a centralized donation platform for the GOP was the only answer to taking on ActBlue and we're proud to stand with the RNC and President Trump in backing this effort.
ActBlue has a 15 year head start on us, so there's plenty of ground to cover. But we aim to close the gap fast. And WinRed is helping us do that.
Senator Todd Young (R-IN), Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Congressman Tom Emmer (MN-06), Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee
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