Democratic donors say they are increasingly frustrated by the state of their party.
Since losing not only the White House but the Senate majority last year and failing to win back the House, donors complain the Democratic Party lacks leadership and a cohesive message.
At the same time, Democratic donors, who numbers show have been giving less than their Republican cohorts since last year, say they are being pulled back into the ring because of a familiar foil: President Trump.
“Trust me, it’s not because they love the party right now,” one Democratic donor said in an interview. “There’s still so much disappointment in the party. We still haven’t been able to find our feet and no one is excited about anything.
“But I think a lot of people are realizing that if we do nothing, we cede control to Trump, and enough is enough.”
In interviews and text exchanges with The Hill, the donors pointed to an escalating threat of freedom of speech as their biggest reason in starting to once again cut checks.
Some say they were particularly taken aback by the recent actions taken against late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who was temporarily pulled off air after he sparked a controversy with comments about the alleged shooter of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed earlier this month.
Other donors were equally put off by the Trump administration’s recent actions including the president’s immigration crackdown and even his statement this past week linking Tylenol to autism.
“It gets worse every day,” the Democratic donor said.
Another California-based donor has noticed other fundraisers have slowly started to write checks, even reluctantly, “given the state of the world.”
The donor was blunt about the party, describing it as “incompetent, arrogant, insular and tone deaf.”
“I have no confidence in the party at the moment,” the donor said. “I’m not doing anything to support the party specifically but rather individual causes [and] candidates.”
There’s little doubt that Democrats, disillusioned with the party after its defeats last year, have been sitting on their checkbooks.
To date, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has been heavily outraising the Democratic National Committee (DNC), according to Federal Election Commission filings. The DNC has about $15 million compared to the RNC’s $84 million.
John Morgan, the Democratic donor and prominent injury lawyer, said he has already written checks for specific candidates including the reelection bid for Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Roy Cooper, the former governor of North Carolina who is running for a Senate seat in the state.
But he also has drawn a red line on who he will support.
“I will only give to a Democrat if they are not identified as a Democratic socialist,” Morgan said. “And I won’t give to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, only individuals.”
“The idea of handing a pile of cash to people who spend like drunken sailors … is a bad idea,” Morgan said.
There are some bright spots for Democrats in terms of fundraising. Earlier this month, Zohran Mamdani, who is the front-runner in the New York City mayoral race, hit the $8 million fundraising cap, mostly because of small dollar donations.
“We can’t take any more of your money,” Mamdani said in a video to supporters. “Truly, you need to stop.”
Mamdani, however, is a bit of a special case in that he’s a Democratic Socialist seen as an outsider to even some Democrats. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), the leader of House Democrats, has yet to endorse him in the New York mayoral race.
Other Democrats aren’t having the same results as Mamdani.
And the views from the donor class are reflected in recent polls that show Americans largely think Republicans have a better handle on the most important issues such as crime, immigration and the economy.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll out this month shows that while Trump’s approval ratings slipped to 41 percent, Republicans are outperforming Democrats across the board.
And a Quinnipiac University survey this past week brought even more dire news to Democrats, showing the party slipping to record lows.
The poll showed that 30 percent of voters across the nation said they have a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, while 54 percent said they hold an unfavorable opinion.
“This is the lowest favorability rating for the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking voters this question in 2008,” the poll’s release said.
The poll showed the numbers weren’t much better for Republicans: 38 percent of those surveyed said they viewed the Republican Party favorably, and 51 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of the party.
Still, Democratic leaders, sensing the concern among Democrats, sought to downplay the polling numbers.
“Even though Democrats’ numbers are low, that’s fine because they’re still higher than that of Republicans,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” last week. “In a couple of races where we have the two candidates, we win.”
Some Democratic strategists acknowledge that it’s going to take some time for donors and voters to regain trust in the Democratic Party.
“If you look at the last five years, there have been a number of events that have created stress on the Democratic brand,” Democratic strategist Joel Payne said, pointing to the issue around former President Biden’s age and his decision to run for reelection.
“It takes time to rebuild trust from those events that fundamentally broke trust with a lot of the electorate, but really most strikingly, the base of the Democratic Party.”
The first donor said it would take a long time for the party to regain trust among the fundraising class.
“The only thing keeping me invested right now is Donald Trump,” the donor said.
