It’s no secret that in our data-driven digital age, running a winning political campaign today looks a lot different than it did 15, 10, or even five years ago.
The old political playbook, largely predicated on buying TV ads, is no longer enough – the new political era we are living in requires a different approach.
That’s why at the Republican National Committee, we have made it our mission to build a political machine that reflects today’s realities and allows us to connect with voters in new and innovative ways.
By far, one of the most important initiatives we support is our online fundraising platform WinRed, which launched exactly one year ago today.
After the 2018 midterm elections, it was clear our Party finally needed an answer to the Democrats’ small-dollar donation machine, ActBlue.
We needed a one-stop-shop where Republican supporters can direct their contributions to our candidates in races across the country.
In the short span of time that WinRed has been up and running it has been an incredible success.
It’s scaled our digital game to new heights and been a revolutionary tool that has already transformed the way we raise money, something that will benefit Republican candidates and help grow our Party for many election cycles to come.
None of the early success we’ve seen from WinRed would have been possible without the endorsement of President Trump and his leadership in getting it done.
The decision to coalesce around one, centralized donation platform to compete with the Democrats’ money machine has paid off – literally.
In WinRed’s first year alone, we raised $450 million online, with an average gift of $40. It took Democrats 10 years to reach this same amount using ActBlue. This is a testament to a more sophisticated WinRed platform, combined with strong enthusiasm from our supporters and a unified GOP.
What WinRed does best is help us shine a national spotlight on local races. To date, key races have raised over $25 million via WinRed’s conduit features. By making it easy to show donors where the biggest races are, we can directly fund the races that will grow our Senate majority and take back the House from Nancy Pelosi.
WinRed is far more than just a new fundraising platform for us, however – it is a critical building block of our campaign infrastructure and is fully integrated into our modern approach to winning elections.
While ActBlue still mails paper checks to their campaigns each month, we’ve integrated our field team and volunteer operations such that everyone who completes a donation also can convert to being a volunteer. In fact, since WinRed launched this feature a few months ago, our party has added over 370,000 new volunteers.
That’s a symphony of coordination, machinery and infrastructure that takes time, a talented team, and tens of millions of dollars to build. The Democrats simply can’t compete.
President Trump and the Republican National Committee are proud to be WinRed's biggest backer. On its first birthday, WinRed has proven successful beyond our wildest dreams.
We have every confidence that WinRed will prove to be a legacy item for our Party and one that plays an essential role in propelling Republican candidates up and down the ticket to victory this November and for many years to come.