The Democratic Party has a "serious fundraising crisis" as it lags far behind the Republican National Committee in cash raised and struggles to attract small-money donors, according to a former top staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I., Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign.
Democrats could perform well in the House in the 2018 midterm elections, but they have a major problem: "The party has a serious fundraising crisis," Michael Whitney wrote in Politico Magazine on Thursday.
Whitney worked as Sanders' digital fundraising manager during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
The RNC raised $75 million in the first six months of 2017, nearly twice as much as the Democratic National Committee, which pulled in $38 million during that period.
The huge fundraising gap between the Democratic and Republican parties is not the only issue for the former, wrote Whitney, a fundraising expert-in-residence with the Centre for Australian Progress. Another problem for Democrats is that Republicans have attracted more money in small-dollar fundraising this year.
A small-dollar donation comes from people who make contributions of $200 or less over an election cycle. These donations "are an important measure of how much grass-roots enthusiasm a campaign or organization has," Whitney explained. "They are the supporters who will show up to knock on doors, make phone calls, and get out the vote."
In the first half of 2017, the RNC raised $33 million from small-dollar donations, while the DNC raised only $21 million from that same class of donors.
One advantage of small-money donors is that since they do not reach campaigns' individual contribution limits, they can be contacted repeatedly to give money several times in a cycle.
Small-dollar donors tend to make repeat contributions, while large-dollar donors will most likely max out on their donation limit.
Sanders benefited from small-dollar donors during his White House run, but Republicans, not Democrats, are the ones who have learned from that strategy, according to Whitney. And Trump has capitalized as president.
"In the Trump era, the Democratic Party has sputtered along with fundraising appeals focused on scare tactics—understandable, but counterproductive," Whitney wrote. "Meanwhile, Trump—a billionaire who is already president—is still winning grass-roots donors by offering his supporters an empowering message."
"It's a simple principle ... the institutional Democratic Party now seems incapable of grasping: People are motivated to act when they feel like part of something larger than themselves—and when they understand that their participation in that larger something makes a real difference," he continued. "The Democratic Party's woes are basic symptoms of the failure to understand that immutable reality."
Trump has "consistently embraced this same sentiment in messages to supporters" and "become a more prolific small-dollar fundraiser than any Democrat."
Whitney called out the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party's arm for House races, for its "dishonest" email tactics that shock, depress, or shame people into action, rather than empower them.
"Trump is even turning around emails from the DCCC back to his own fundraising list, 'forwarding' the messages and highlighting the desperate language in them," he noted.
"DNC Chair Tom Perez has acknowledged the party's problem with small-dollar donors, saying during his candidacy to lead the DNC that the party needs to 'go to school' to figure out how to raise money from grass-roots donors, like Senator Bernie Sanders did during his presidential campaign," Whitney wrote. "He should enroll soon: Donald Trump and the Republicans are already several grades ahead."