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ActBlue, a donation website that helps Democratic candidates raise small donations, raised $568 million in the first quarter of this year, the group said. This is a 50% increase compared to the amount raised in the same quarter for the last midterm elections in 2022.
The total includes $391 million to federal candidates and $119 million to state and local candidates, the group said.
ActBlue is used by federal, state and local candidates, as well as other Democratic groups. The organization says it has raised about $58 million for charities and civic groups.
According to the organization, ActBlue has received a total of 15 million donations, including 686,000 new donors. The average donation through this platform was $38. ActBlue’s announcement comes ahead of its formal submission of funding details in March.
While politicians often tout small-dollar donors as evidence of grassroots support, they also attract large donations from Congressional leadership and corporate political action committees to raise money.
The total amount was announced as ActBlue is under investigation by Republicans in Congress and the Justice Department over whether it is doing enough to prevent foreign donors from making illegal contributions to U.S. campaigns.
In a blog posted Tuesday morning, the group defended the security measures it is taking to prevent fraud and meet Federal Election Commission requirements.
“ActBlue’s engineering team has built robust protections at every layer of the platform,” said Jason Wong, ActBlue’s chief technology officer. “We are committed to evolving our systems to stay ahead of emerging threats and protect the integrity of our infrastructure.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed the title of Chief Technology Officer Jason Wong due to outdated information provided by ActBlue.
