Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar Top Small-Dollar Campaign Donations for Democrats

Making headlines keeps small-dollar campaign donors clicking.

House freshmen who’ve attracted national attention are doing better than their lesser-known colleagues at attracting the small-denomination donations that are a sign of strong grass-roots enthusiasm.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) , who landed on the cover of Time magazine within weeks after taking her seat in Congress, has collected almost $600,000 this year from campaign donors giving $200 or less each. That’s more than 80 percent of her total haul of close to $728,000 in the first quarter of 2019, according to a newly filed Federal Election Commission report.

A key factor in small-dollar fundraising is national name recognition, said Sarah Bryner, research director of the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. Donors giving online tend to be spread across the country, not concentrated in the lawmaker’s district, and it takes a lot for a House member to be nationally known, she said.

“How many people can even name their own member of Congress?” asked Bryner. People going online to give $10 or $25 may be doing so “not to help win an election but as as a symbolic gesture,” she said.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim Democrat from Minnesota frequently in the news, is running close behind Ocasio-Cortez in small-dollar fundraising this year, collecting about $415,000 — half of her total campaign money — in the first quarter. She’s been the target of well-publicized attacks by President Donald Trump and other Republicans, who say her criticism of Israel and its supporters is anti-Semitic.

Omar’s campaign collected a total of $832,000 in the first three months of this year, according to her latest FEC report. That was more than 75 percent of what she raised for the entire 2018 election cycle. Omar’s share of small-donor contributions has increased so far this cycle from 29 percent to 50 percent.

Unlike Ocasio-Cortez and Omar, most of the top fundraising freshman Democrats have seen a decline so far this year in the proportion of their campaign money coming from small-dollar donors.

That could be a troubling trend for Democrats after their record money haul to win the House majority in the midterms, according to Bryner. Democrats emphasized appealing to grass-roots donors in the 2018 midterms as a way to counter the influence of wealthy individuals and corporate interests in Washington.

One of the Democrats’ top fundraisers, Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) collected more than $660,000 through the first quarter of 2019, but less than 10 percent came from donors giving $200 or less. In the 2018 race, Cunningham raised almost a quarter of his more than $2.4 million in campaign money from small donors.

Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) had the third-highest rate of small-dollar support among the top fundraising freshmen Democrats this year. She collected 11.3 percent of her first-quarter cash total of about $608,000 from smaller donors.

In 2018, Hill got 21 percent of her campaign cash from smaller donors. She got $1.8 million in small-dollar contributions of a total of roughly $8.6 million.

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[ChicagoBeaver]

The world is gonna end in 12 years y'all, like, you know, like. You know?

[prez]

give me your money and I'll fix all of your problems, says the politician... I'll just keep my money and leave me the hell alone.

[bigbad]

"If we have more people un-willing to work it will fix our un-employment problem". Congresswoman Ocosio-Cortez

[ecamormex]

I support ANYONE who fights the oligarchs and their puppets in government.

[DP-fqiy]

The two biggest jokes in modern politics in one video.

[lifeline]

Collecting thousands of dollars from unsuspecting idiots is sure the way to go to end corruption

[yucatansuckaman]

Of course its small dollar, these are the fresh faces that want to take from the rich.

[Dr.Westside]

Investigate both of these frauds for violating campaign finance law .

[davidhochstetler]

Why exactly are they getting donations? They just got elected.

[nicholassantos]

The only two for the people, congress woman in American history

[jimgibbons]

At those $ amounts that is less than 5k donors each. That's the good news. The bad news is that the faces of our enemy have positions within our government.

[gordonadams]

I see most of the comments favor big dollar donations from the oligarchy. Must be Mercer trolls.

[EPFForsyth]

When are you ever going to do a story about what is actually happening at our border? I live in El Paso, as well as volunteer at our local food pantry. Undocumented immigrants are coming in everyday here in El Paso, we need help, and we need a solution, not more excuses or political games. El Paso can not continue to take in 32, 000 thousand people every 90 days... Btw The Kelly Memorial Food Pantry here in El Paso could use donations, we no longer have any money to buy and give out meat. Where is BETO? Where is any democrat at least come down a take a look, or at least act like you care... Hell just write a check...Enough with all this other BS...

[glibgrin]

To be clear they’ve only been in their seats for 6 months and already focusing on re-election efforts. Our system is SO bent 🤪

[jillylove]

Yep. We the people need powerful voices to counter the soulless special interests who have corporate captured our Congress to the detriment of all life on Earth. Monsters

[shkwave]

Ah, good old Alexandria Occasional Cortex.

[brandyb]

She just lied to a bunch of people on her "charity" walk. They thought they were donating to research for the GND and when they were informed it was really donations to her campaign people weren't happy. Not to mention all of the $20 donations fees for the kids 1k, money cannot be donated to campaigns on a minors behalf so this is another campaign violation people are looking into. This girl is not doing anything for her constituents, many are speaking out that they cannot reach her, she has no office, she doesn't contact people and she only rolls into town when she is doing a photo op or townhall with press in tow, they feel like she is more concerned with gaining power to run the country instead of doing what she was elected to do in the little district she is in, I am not so sure she will be back. If she can't even take care of her district, how is she gonna do anything else?

[jeepdan]

MABA
Make Alexandra a Bartender Again

[brandymc]

I would love for her to drop her blow dryer in the Bath tub

[izackschnoor]

I'm glad she's a people's candidate. Over 80% of the GOP's Funding comes from corporate donors, that's public record.