Trump's small-dollar donor fundraising is beset by confusion and fatigue

WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump’s contributions from small-dollar donors have plummeted since his last bid for the White House, presenting the former president with a financial challenge as he attempts to keep pace with Democrats' fundraising machine.

Fewer than a third of the Republican's campaign contributions have come from donors who gave less than $200 — down from nearly half of all donations in his 2020 race, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and OpenSecrets, an organization that tracks political spending.

The total collected from small donors has also declined, according to the analysis. Trump raised $98 million from such contributors through June, a 40% drop compared to the $165 million they contributed during a corresponding period in his previous presidential race.

The dip has forced Trump to rely more on wealthy donors and groups backed by them, a shift that cuts into the populist message that first propelled him to the White House. The decline in donations could not come at a worse time for Trump. Democrats have raised massive sums from small-dollar donors this cycle. President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris have raised a staggering $285 million from such donors since April 2023, representing more than 40% of their fundraising, according to data from OpenSecrets.

GOP operatives said the trend could portend trouble for the broader party. Trump’s fundraising dip raises questions about the party’s ability to continue tapping its aging base for funds. Such voters often live on fixed incomes and don’t have the extra cash to contribute to candidates, and polls have consistently found that the Republican base is growing older.

Republicans also engaged in a hyperaggressive — often combative — style of digital fundraising that is alienating voters, the operatives said. Campaigns and committees often share or rent lists of donors to each other, leading to voters being flooded with similar solicitations that can be confusing.

“Republican vendors have so mistreated our donors that many grassroots donors don’t want to give to us anymore,” said John Hall, a Republican fundraising consultant and partner at Apex Strategies. “If you make a donation to almost any Republican candidate today, within three weeks you are going to start getting 30-50 text messages from other candidates you have never heard of before.”

Hall’s firm sent surveys to Republican donors earlier this year and found that a majority of those who responded said they continued to receive text message solicitations after they had requested to be removed from a list.

“Donors feel like they are never thanked, they feel abused, and they don’t know how to get off lists,” Hall said. “This has a chilling effect on everyone’s fundraising.”

Small-dollar donors echoed Hall's concerns. They told the AP they stopped giving to Trump's campaign because they were tired of being barraged with solicitations for donations from other Republicans, who presumably got the donor information from the Trump campaign. Others said they were being more careful about their political giving due to financial struggles.

“I am sick of them asking for money,” said Susan Brito, 51, of Florida, who gave dozens of small donations totaling $69 in 2022 and 2023 but hasn't contributed this year. ”I am disabled, you are sending me text, after text, after text.”

Bill Ruggio, 70, donated nearly every month, a total of $60, to Trump's campaign over 2022 and 2023. He hasn't contributed anything this year, saying he doesn't have the extra cash and is deeply frustrated by a barrage of text messages he receives from the Republican candidates and committees.

“I don’t even look at my texts anymore during the political season. It is just so many that I miss personal ones because there are so many of the political ones,” Ruggio said. “It kind of sticks in your craw.”

Doug Deeken, the Republican Party chair in Wayne County, Ohio, said such complaints are fairly common.

“People get annoyed by the text messages, and the direct mail, and the emails, Deeken said, his phone filled with texts from random conservative groups asking for money. “It is annoying. It annoys me!”

Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, did not directly respond to the donor drop-off, but blamed the Biden administration and Harris for a bad economy leading people to have less money, something “President Trump completely understands."

Before Trump, Democrats dominated the small-dollar donor playing field, but Trump cut into the advantage in 2016, turning his devoted base into small donations throughout the year. Trump raised $170 million from small-dollar donors, about 52% of his total, according to OpenSecrets. The candidate’s haul from small donors outpaced the $164 million that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton raised from such contributors, a figure that represented just under 30% of her total fundraising. In 2020, Trump continued that fundraising prowess.

The problem this year, said Republican officials and activists in key states, is that the persistent fundraising requests from campaigns and committees have led voters to question whether their money is actually going to Trump. One reason for this issue is major email lists being rented out by smaller campaigns. This means that someone who has signed up to receive emails from Trump, could get emails from a host of Republican candidates, raising skepticism about where their money is actually going.

“It’s the total number of texts people are getting and fundraising requests that are coming in. That causes the confusion,” said Shannon Burns, a top Republican activist in Ohio and vocal Trump supporter. Burns said donors feel “bombarded” by the often breathless outreach from a range of groups, leading to questions from Trump supporters. Those questions were so frequent, he said, that at one point he began giving out the physical mailing address where a Trump supporter could send a check.

Trump's campaign has tried to stop committees from using his name and likeness in fundraising appeals.

In March 2023, the Trump campaign sent Republican digital fundraising vendors a memo that stated the former president “does not consent” to outside groups or candidates using his name or image in fundraising appeals. He also sent a cease and desist letter to the top Republican committees in Washington in 2021, urging them to stop using his name in fundraising appeals.

Trump has experienced spikes in small-dollar fundraising this cycle — like in the days after his felony conviction in May and when a gunman attempted to assassinate the candidate in July. But those jolts have not made up for a steady decline in donations from people like Stephen Buckhalter.

Buckhalter, 78, retired from the insurance industry a year ago and donated $120 to Trump's campaign in 2022 and 2023. He stopped this year.

“The cost of living has gotten to the point where there is not much left at the end of the month,” he said. “When you are paying all this extra money for food and gas and insurance and rent… that doesn’t leave a lot of extra money coming in at the end of the month.”

When asked if his decision to stop donating indicates he no longer supports Trump, Buckhalter was blunt: “Heck no.”