Ocasio-Cortez raised nearly $15 million total in the first half of 2025 from 736,000 contributions, an average of $20 a donor. Notably, her fundraising spiked after the March announcement that she would join Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
So, here’s the problem. $15M is a lot of money to a schlub. But it’s not a lot to a billionaire.
Michael Bloomberg went through a cool $1B out of his own pocket over 100 days to place 4th in the 2020 Dem Primary. Then he turned around and dropped another $150M into liberal-aligned PACs and campaigns going into the general. In 2024, he dropped $20M into various House races and another $10M into House Majority PAC just in May. This, while his Republican peer Timmothy Mellon injected another $200M into various races, primarily through the Trump SuperPAC.
AOC’s fundraising would have been admirable in any election cycle, as an individual. But she’s still a small fish in an enormous pond when it comes to billionaire spending. And that’s long before we get to the degree of influence a guy like Bloomberg or Bezos or Murdoch wields when they flat out own entire news networks.
If you’re wondering why AOC can’t get the time of day when she’s angling for a committee chairmanship, despite being the third largest fundraiser in the House, that’s why. Her haul pales beside what a plutocrat roosting in Martha’s Vineyard or Silicon Valley can crap out on a whim.
It’s so depressing how money influences politics, every citizen should be able to donate $10 a year, and that’s it. No corporate money no PACs, you want to get your message out, you need to actually engage with your constituents on a personal level and earn their support.
Have you heard of the Heritage Foundation?
At give or take 330 million Americans, that’d be about 3 billion dollars, give or take.
A single billionaire could donate double that and just buy the elections
Currently this is perfectly legal in the US, with great thanks to the Republican party which had been sabotaging the country for the past 5 decades.
Yup - so anyone donating more than $10 a year gets 10 years in prison. Also your £10 is 100% tax deductible, if you don’t earn enough to pay any tax then you get an extra $10 in state benefit if you donate it to someone running for office.
Wouldn’t it be nice for campaign funds to be used for shoe leather, emails and flyers, rather than attack ads on every website and TV station.
at some point you have to realise that the political system is corrupt and money needs to be removed, or you’re only doing what about 100 people want, instead of the 330 million.
Trump threatening the blue state with invasion has made fund raising moot. The blue states need to activate their guard units and prepare for what is next.
It’s the Govenors that do that part.
Everyone needs to be doing their part, but one group not doesn’t mean everyone else should stop what they’re doing.
. . . Labor day?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is building a fundraising juggernaut that is rivaling some of the Democratic Party’s core infrastructure, prompting questions about both her future and the party’s.
The media is trying to frame this as fighting the party, but this is the DNC working with progressisves
Small-dollar donations – contributions of less than $200 – are the lifeblood of campaigns and a key measure of voter enthusiasm. And on ActBlue, Democrats’ largest online fundraising platform, the New York congresswoman received the third-most small-dollar donations in the first half of the year.
That trailed only the Democratic National Committee and the party’s Senate campaign arm, key party infrastructure. Ocasio-Cortez beat the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House campaign arm, and every other individual candidate.
DNC is also up because of small donors…
And they’re using that to reinvest in red/purple state parties, who are using it to bring Sanders and AOC on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour to those states
Ocasio-Cortez raised nearly $15 million total in the first half of 2025 from 736,000 contributions, an average of $20 a donor. Notably, her fundraising spiked after the March announcement that she would join Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
It’s a feedback loop, and it’s intentional. This is how we’re supposed to run a party
Yep. I am appreciative of your moderate perspective. It’s not business as usual but every sign points to that Americans haven’t given up on democracy just yet.
Yep. I am appreciative of your moderate perspective
Lol
It’s not business as usual but every sign points to that Americans haven’t given up on democracy just yet.
Is there like an autocorrect thing going on here?
Cuz it sounds like you’re implying that the best result is for Americans to give up on democracy…
Nope, but I’m worried about that risk becoming realized. Americans are now living in an authoritarian country, but with enough effort and resolve from Americans there still appears hope for a way back out. There is a lot of nihilism abound, but I’m commending you for bring forth the idea that it’s not irreversible.
Was it by spamming everyone’s phones with SMS donation requests? I bet it wasn’t.
She needs to declare her candidacy
The moment she does, the shills from ML will start coming out of the woodwork with “Genocide AOC,” or something that hopefully rhymes better.
Lemmy will be ablaze with “leftists” encouraging people not to vote.
Don Jr. will win 2028.
I can see the comments already:
She [insert propaganda] and because of that I will not be voting for her and [insert ridiculous exaggeration]. She hasn’t even met my [insert insanely specific purity test].
I agree with most of this, but Lemmy isn’t popular enough to decide the election.
Oh, they don’t stop at Lemmy. We just get a taste. Reddit, Xitter, Facebook, were all ON FIRE with ML propaganda.
bernie’s been priming her up
