AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster Elections DCCC raises $100 million online in massive midterm haul

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has raised more than $100 million online in the 2018 election cycle — a massive haul that has helped fuel Democrats’ drive to retake the House majority.

The DCCC passed the nine-figure mark on Tuesday, one week out from Election Day, with an average donation of $19, according to a committee aide. The committee had raised $67 million online by this point in the 2016 election, its previous record year.


The digital total comprises about 40 percent of the $250 million the DCCC has raised for the 2018 election as of its latest Federal Election Commission report.

“The outpouring of support from grass-roots donors has allowed us to invest in over 80 races, fund an unprecedented $30 million base engagement and turnout campaign, and hold Republicans accountable every step of the way,” Julia Ager, the DCCC’s chief digital officer, said in a statement.

The DCCC has always been one of the Democratic Party’s top online fundraisers, after investing in its digital operations during the early years of online political donating and honing its fundraising appeals through A/B testing to find the characteristics — from subject lines to font sizes — that drive the most donations. But the committee also took early steps to turbocharge its digital take for the midterm elections.

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In mid-November 2016, as DCCC staffers were still processing a tough election and Hillary Clinton’s presidential loss — though House Democrats did gain seven seats — the committee saw the nascent “resistance” organizing against President-elect Donald Trump and began a digital ad campaign to entice riled-up Democrats to join the DCCC’s email and text lists.

The DCCC ended up spending more than $2.5 million on “acquisition” ads between then and March 2017, at the time of the election cycle when party committee’s cash reserves are always at their lowest point. But the early decision paid off: The new additions to the DCCC list from that ad campaign donated over $11.1 million to the committee in 2017 and 2018, the DCCC aide said. The committee has received nearly a half-million first-time online donations this cycle.

The DCCC’s digital department spent the past two years leaping on big news moments to bring in digital dollars to the committee. The committee raised about $1.2 million online around Trump’s inauguration and the women’s marches that immediately followed, the DCCC aide said; $720,000 following Senate Republicans’ vote to silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) during debate over Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation; and $887,000 during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.

The DCCC also raised more than $300,000 apiece on days surrounding major Republican legislative maneuvers in 2017, including House passage of an Obamacare repeal bill, the Senate failure of an Obamacare repeal bill, and the passage of the Republican budget. The DCCC raised $460,000 off the passage of the Republican tax law in 2017.

The House Democratic committee has poured that money into advertising, field organizing and other initiatives in dozens of districts in recent months — where Democratic candidates have also enjoyed a digital fundraising bonanza this year. Like the DCCC, many of House Democrats’ top challengers this year sunk early resources into building email lists, with the help of DCCC regional digital directors tasked with aiding them. The investment has paid off in record-breaking candidate fundraising, which has given the Democratic Party a spending advantage in many House races for the first time.