politics

Ocasio-Cortez raised nearly $15 million total in the first half of 2025 from 736,000 contributions, an average of $20 a donor. Notably, her fundraising spiked after the March announcement that she would join Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.

So, here's the problem. $15M is a lot of money to a schlub. But it's not a lot to a billionaire.

Michael Bloomberg went through a cool $1B out of his own pocket over 100 days to place 4th in the 2020 Dem Primary. Then he turned around and dropped another $150M into liberal-aligned PACs and campaigns going into the general. In 2024, he dropped $20M into various House races and another $10M into House Majority PAC just in May. This, while his Republican peer Timmothy Mellon injected another $200M into various races, primarily through the Trump SuperPAC.

AOC's fundraising would have been admirable in any election cycle, as an individual. But she's still a small fish in an enormous pond when it comes to billionaire spending. And that's long before we get to the degree of influence a guy like Bloomberg or Bezos or Murdoch wields when they flat out own entire news networks.

If you're wondering why AOC can't get the time of day when she's angling for a committee chairmanship, despite being the third largest fundraiser in the House, that's why. Her haul pales beside what a plutocrat roosting in Martha's Vineyard or Silicon Valley can crap out on a whim.

It’s so depressing how money influences politics, every citizen should be able to donate $10 a year, and that’s it. No corporate money no PACs, you want to get your message out, you need to actually engage with your constituents on a personal level and earn their support.

Trump threatening the blue state with invasion has made fund raising moot. The blue states need to activate their guard units and prepare for what is next.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is building a fundraising juggernaut that is rivaling some of the Democratic Party’s core infrastructure, prompting questions about both her future and the party’s.

The media is trying to frame this as fighting the party, but this is the DNC working with progressisves

Small-dollar donations – contributions of less than $200 – are the lifeblood of campaigns and a key measure of voter enthusiasm. And on ActBlue, Democrats’ largest online fundraising platform, the New York congresswoman received the third-most small-dollar donations in the first half of the year.

That trailed only the Democratic National Committee and the party’s Senate campaign arm, key party infrastructure. Ocasio-Cortez beat the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House campaign arm, and every other individual candidate.

DNC is also up because of small donors...

And they're using that to reinvest in red/purple state parties, who are using it to bring Sanders and AOC on their "Fighting Oligarchy" tour to those states

Ocasio-Cortez raised nearly $15 million total in the first half of 2025 from 736,000 contributions, an average of $20 a donor. Notably, her fundraising spiked after the March announcement that she would join Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.

It's a feedback loop, and it's intentional. This is how we're supposed to run a party

Was it by spamming everyone’s phones with SMS donation requests? I bet it wasn’t.