Small Donors Become ‘Super Donors’

“A Wall Street Journal analysis of Federal Election Commission data found that at least 1,900 people contributed 50 times or more to a single presidential candidate through the end of September. The Sanders campaign laid claim to the majority of these ‘super donors,’ the Journal found, with about 1,000 of them. The other Democrats in the race combined for at least 650 ultra-repeat givers, led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had at least 125. And President Trump’s re-election campaign, which began in 2017, has at least 250.”

“The super donor trend is fueled by the increasing ease of giving money online—sometimes by clicking a single button or through automated recurring payments—and the premium that this year’s presidential candidates have placed on having a high volume of tiny donations, which they use as a proxy for grass roots support.”