It’s the Emails, Stupid!

Another Reason Democratic Small Donors Keep Setting Their Money on Fire

Why do Democratic political donors keep giving to candidates who either don’t need their money or can’t win?

A few weeks ago, I wrote here about Run for Something, a post-2016 political start-up that is building a pipeline of young people who are starting their political journeys at the bottom of the ladder, seeking election for local offices like school boards, county and city councils and the like. Its co-founder, Amanda Litman, had dared to criticize grassroots activists for doing something stupid, telling the New York Times’ Ezra Klein, “If your goal is to win and build sustainable power, throwing $90 million at Amy McGrath for Senate just because she’s taking on Mitch McConnell is not the way to do that. It just isn’t.”

Rage-giving, or, to be nicer about it, giving because you passionately love a candidate or hate their opponent, is totally understandable. In 2020, the three Democratic senate candidates running against a trilogy of hated Republican incumbents, Amy McGrath, Jaime Harrison and Sara Gideon collectively raised almost $300 million against, respectively, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins, and they each lost. Gideon had nearly three times as much money as Collins and lost by 9 points. Even more galling, she ended her campaign with nearly $15 million unspent in her campaign account. Now she’s treating her defunct campaign bank account like a personal foundation and is…