Americans either love or hate President Trump – and they’re opening their wallets to prove it.
Taking advantage of their control of Congress and the White House, Republicans have been reeling in the dough.
The House’s GOP campaign wing brought in a record $30 million during a dinner last week that Trump headlined.
Over January and February, the party’s Senate campaign group pulled in $9.3 million – compared to $7.5 million for the Democrats, according to an analysis by Politico published on Wednesday.
And online revenue for the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which works to elect GOP candidates for that body, has spiked 150 percent compared to donations in 2015, with 99 percent of them coming in under $200, the website reported citing a committee aide.
On the other side of the aisle, opposition to Trump is filling Democrats’ coffers.
The Democratic candidate running for the Georgia congressional seat left vacant by Tom Price when he became Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services has raised more than $2 million online last month – more than Price shelled out during his entire 2016 reelection campaign.
In New York, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand last month raked in small online donations – raising around $637,000 – that’s six times more than the state’s junior senator raised in small-dollar contributions in the first quarter of 2011.
“Trump is the gift that keeps on giving,” said Rep. Tony Cardenas.
“What we’re seeing is a massive number of people who are either scared or shocked [by] somebody like Donald Trump with all his vitriolic negativity and his attacks on people,” said Cardenas (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ fundraising arm.
“As a result they’re getting off their rear-end one way or another, and a way we’re seeing it is an influx of donations,” he told Politico, adding that the average donation in February was $12.
A campaign fundraiser for former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said voters are motivated at the grassroots level.
“This isn’t big donors giving Jeb Bush or a super PAC $100 million. [It’s] small donations from a lot of people who I’m sure have not given in a midterm election before – what it signals is not just money. You’re seeing more people volunteer. It’s not just donor activism,” Joe Trippi told Politico.