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Donors are rejecting the stumbling Democratic Party as they see nothing worth supporting in the weeks since President Donald Trump’s triumphant return to the White House.
The Hill reports the once-reliable supporters are still angry about the election results, the amount of money spent for such a slim return, and uninspired by anything their side has put forward since.
“I’ll be blunt here: The Democratic Party is f‑‑‑ing terrible. Plain and simple,” one major Democratic donor told the outlet. “In fact, it doesn’t get much worse.”
A second donor was equally unabashed in their criticism.
“They want us to spend money and for what? For no message, no organization, no forward thinking,” the donor said. “The thing that’s clear to a lot of us is that the party never really learned its lesson in 2016. They worked off the same playbook and the same ineffective strategies and to what end?”
Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who served as the director of the pro-Biden super PAC ‘Unite the Country,’ attributed some of the donor reluctance to fatigue, which he said happens after every election.
But, Schale acknowledged to The Hill, “There is genuine frustration.”
“I’ve talked to a number of donors who just don’t have a lot of confidence after 2024 and want to see how people are thinking about issues differently,” he said.
While it is common for fundraising to drop off in the immediacy of a presidential defeat, and dial up again ahead of the midterm races, Democratic donors, strategists and activists told the New York Times that they believe this time, it’s different.
“No one is giving until they see a plan for how we are going to better navigate this unprecedented situation and stop acting like this is a normal administration,” Alexandra Acker-Lyons, a political consultant close to Silicon Valley donors, told the Times.
There remains some frustration among donors about the $1.5 billion the Harris campaign burned through in the failed race against Trump, according to the Times.
Donors want to know what Democrats plan to do differently next time, with some reportedly demanding more details about targets and plans of campaign groups before they contribute.