WinRed explained

Type:For-profit
Key People:Gerrit Lansing
Affiliations:Republican Party
Location:Arlington, VA

WinRed is an American fundraising platform for the Republican Party endorsed by the Republican National Committee (RNC). It was launched to compete with the Democratic Party's success in online grassroots fundraising through its platform ActBlue.[1] In contrast to ActBlue, which is run independently of the Democratic Party, WinRed is controlled by the Republican Party.[2] During the 2024 election, WinRed processed $1.8 billion in donations from 4.5 million small-dollar donors.[3]

History

WinRed is a for-profit fundraising platform built for the American Republican Party.[4] The WinRed launch was the first time the GOP had a single website for all of its candidates.[5]

Republican leadership began discussing the possibility of building a competitor to ActBlue within days of the 2018 midterm results. Donald Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Trump’s campaign manager at the time, Brad Parscale, were all personally involved in creating the platform.[6] WinRed was initially announced as Patriot Pass, with an expected release date of February 2019.[7] The name was changed following Robert Kraft's complaints that the name resembled that of his football team, the New England Patriots.

The Republican Party, the Trump re-election campaign, and other state-wide and local races across the United States began using the platform in late 2019, with nearly 800 campaigns using the platform by May 2020.[8] WinRed discloses donor information to the Federal Election Commission.[9]

WinRed merged Revv, a Republican payment processing firm founded in December 2014 by Gerrit Lansing, and DataTrust, the party's voter data repository. The platform allows one-click donations.[10] [11]

In 2019, the RNC and the Trump administration applied heavy pressure to motivate all Republican campaigns to use the platform. In April 2020, the platform expanded from its previous representation of only federal-level candidates and began supporting state- and local-level races.[12]

In 2020, Republican candidates raised more than $275 million on WinRed, with $142 million raised in June.[13]

Federal Election Commission reporting

WinRed reports all contributions processed to federal campaigns to the Federal Election Commission, regardless of the amount.[14] [15] When a candidate for a federal election raises money through WinRed, WinRed serves as a conduit for election law purposes.[14] [16] When donations pass through a conduit such as WinRed or ActBlue donors names and contributions are itemized, reported, and made publicly available on the Internet.[17]

By contrast, small donations of up to $200 are not automatically reported to the FEC if they contributed directly to a federal campaign committee.[17] [18]

In 2024 the Institute for Free Speech sued the FEC over a discrepancy whereby small donors utilizing conduits WinRed or ActBlue are automatically made public but same-sized direct donations are not.[19]

Revenue

WinRed took in US$30 million in its first three months after launch, $100 million in its first six, and $130 million in the first quarter of 2020. (For comparison, ActBlue brought in $141 million in April 2020, compared to $60 million for WinRed.[20]) Donald Trump was the largest beneficiary, with six senators raising at least $1 million each. Lansing, as well as various Republican operatives, attributed some of this success to the effort to impeach Trump at the time. On the day after Trump's first impeachment was announced, the Trump campaign and the RNC received over $5 million.[8] [21] Lansing reported that Trump had received 52% of overall donations as of May 2020.[22] WinRed raised over $2 billion over its first 15 months.

Competitors

As part of party negotiations to launch WinRed, the Victory Pass platform was expected to close. The nonpartisan platform Anedot was not involved in discussions among party leadership.[23]

The Trump administration sent a cease-and-desist letter to WinRed's rival Anedot. The Republican State Leadership Committee, which oversees the ".gop" top-level internet domain, revoked the domain registration of the "Give.GOP" website, which re-branded and re-launched in July 2019 as "Right.us". The national Republican party has said it will limit national party committee investments and data to federal candidates and state parties who use WinRed.

Criticism

Following the aggressive push for Republican campaigns to use WinRed, many party officials, fundraisers, and campaign operatives criticized the effort.[24] Some critiqued the requirement that campaigns use WinRed, arguing that the effort sidelined older services preferred by campaigns like Anedot or Give.GOP. Others expressed concern about profits, noting that it was unclear who stood to gain from use of the service and comparing the higher fees of WinRed to those of competitors.

In the weeks following launch, state officials and campaign operatives pushed back against the Republican Party's consolidation behind WinRed, arguing that the party's acceptance of a monopoly over fundraising violated free-market principles. In addition, they expressed concern that the platform might constitute a money and data grab.[25]

Following the 2020 campaign, several Trump donors reported being unknowingly billed for recurring contributions to his campaign, with some having as much as several thousand dollars deducted without their knowledge. Some experts attributed this, at least in part, to the way WinRed's platform was configured. WinRed uses prefilled checkboxes that donors need to manually uncheck to prevent repeat donations. In addition, unlike ActBlue, WinRed keeps a percentage of refunded contributions.[26] After the release of that report, the National Republican Congressional Committee continued to use the same tactics in their fundraising on WinRed.[27]

In 2022, a judge authorized the continuation of an investigation by several state attorneys general into WinRed's fundraising practices.[28]

In July 2022, WinRed's expense disclosures were challenged by donor watchdog Campaign Legal Center. WinRed reported less than $2,700 in operating expenses since 2019 despite processing over $2.8 billion in donations, an implausibly small cost.[29]

In April 2023, The New York Times reported that WinRed was proposing to increase transaction fees on donations made through its site, citing a decline in contributions the previous year, but the plan had stalled over opposition from Republican leaders.

In November 2023, the conservative O'Keefe Media Group released a video purporting to question a donor as to the authenticity of some donations listed on the Federal Election Commission's website that were made with their own personal details. The subject denied donating the funds listed in the database, which was listed as ~$154,000 over 10,000 separate donations.[30]

Notes and References

  1. News: DeCosta-Klipa . Nik . Here’s how ActBlue responded to the launch of WinRed . 5 July 2024 . Boston.com . 24 June 109 . 5 July 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240705200834/https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2019/06/24/actblue-winred/ . live .
  2. Kim . Seo-young Silvia . Li . Zhao . 2026 . Keep Winning with WinRed? Online Fundraising Platform as the Party’s Public Good . The Journal of Politics . 10.1086/735435 . 0022-3816. subscription .
  3. Web site: Isenstadt . Alex . 2025-12-05 . Scoop: New fundraising platform ignites MAGA cash clash . Axios . en.
  4. News: Crabtree . Susan . Backlash Ensues as RNC's WinRed Fundraising Hammer Falls . 31 March 2020 . RealClearPolitics . 16 July 2019 . 19 June 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200619030015/https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/07/16/backlash_ensues_as_rncs_winred_fundraising_hammer_falls.html . live .
  5. Web site: Trump, RNC launch 'WinRed' to compete with Dems' online fundraising machine . Fox News . 24 June 2019 . 27 February 2026.
  6. News: Top Republicans Balk at WinRed's Plan to Charge More for Online Donations . The New York Times . 28 April 2023 . Goldmacher . Shane .
  7. News: Levine. Carrie. Overby. Peter. 1 July 2019. Red Shift: How Republicans Plan To Catch Democrats In Online Fundraising. en. NPR. 7 April 2020. 23 March 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200323183504/https://www.npr.org/2019/07/01/736990455/red-shift-how-republicans-plan-to-catch-democrats-in-online-fundraising. live.
  8. News: Pappas . Alex . WinRed, new GOP donor platform, reaps impeachment windfall, rakes in millions since probe launch . 31 March 2020 . Fox News . 30 September 2019 . 23 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200323183502/https://www.foxnews.com/politics/winred-impeachment-republican-donor-platform-windfall . live .
  9. Web site: WINRED – Committee filings . Federal Election Commission . 14 September 2022.
  10. News: Miller . Zeke . GOP unveils fundraising tool to rival Democrats' ActBlue . 12 April 2020 . Associated Press . 22 January 2019 . 7 April 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200407215336/https://apnews.com/f845d66c4dd94fb8ae2cd94a3c1aed40 . live .
  11. Web site: The $1 million upside for an RNC digital guru . 2020-07-02 . Politico.com . SHANE . GOLDMACHER . April 18, 2017 . 2020-07-29 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200729030725/https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/republican-digital-guru-upside-237311 . live .
  12. News: Bland . Scott . Trump-backed online donor platform launches at state level ahead of redistricting . 8 May 2020 . Politico . 17 April 2020 . 2 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200502074719/https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/17/gop-online-donor-platform-launches-191735 . live .
  13. Web site: Mutnick . Ally . WinRed collects record $275M for Republicans in second quarter . POLITICO . 6 July 2020 . 27 February 2026.
  14. Web site: Where Does My Donation Go? . January 18, 2025 . WinRed . According to federal law, these donations are made by individuals and all contribution details are reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Federal Election Commission (FEC), or other necessary state agencies..
  15. Web site: Mutnick . Ally . WinRed collects record $275M for Republicans in second quarter . POLITICO . 6 July 2020 . 27 February 2026.
  16. Web site: Earmarked contributions . July 14, 2020 . FEC.gov. July 14, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200714053849/https://www.fec.gov/updates/earmarked-contributions/. live.
  17. News: Lee . Michelle Ye Hee . September 10, 2019 . Trump's critics are targeting his donors, sparking fears of a backlash against disclosure . Washtington Post . January 20, 2024.
  18. News: Primo . David M. . August 18, 2019 . Personal Data About Small-Donor Democrats Is All Over the Internet . New York Times . January 20, 2024.
  19. Small-Dollar Donors Sue FEC over Disclosure Requirements . . July 11, 2024 . January 18, 2024.
  20. News: ActBlue raised $141 million in April, after coronavirus halted fundraising in second half of March, officials say. Michelle Ye Hee. Lee. www.washingtonpost.com. 2020-06-19. 2020-06-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20200620104129/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/online-donations-on-actblue-winred-picked-up-in-april-after-decline-during-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/05/19/ed321c6c-994f-11ea-a282-386f56d579e6_story.html. live.
  21. News: Hakim . Danny . Thrush . Glenn . How the Trump Campaign Took Over the G.O.P. . 31 March 2020 . The New York Times . 9 March 2020 . 31 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200331093500/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/us/trump-campaign-brad-parscale.html . live .
  22. News: Ye Hee Lee . Michelle . ActBlue raised $141 million in April, after coronavirus halted fundraising in second half of March, officials say . The Washington Post . 20 May 2020 . en . 19 June 2020 . 20 June 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200620104129/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/online-donations-on-actblue-winred-picked-up-in-april-after-decline-during-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/05/19/ed321c6c-994f-11ea-a282-386f56d579e6_story.html . live .
  23. News: Isenstadt . Alex . Exclusive: GOP reaches landmark agreement to juice small-dollar fundraising . 20 April 2020 . POLITICO . 21 January 2019 . en . 20 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200320101151/https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/21/republican-fundraising-patriot-pass-1116642 . live .
  24. News: Zanona . Melanie . Republicans Clash With Trump-aligned Operatives . 25 July 2020 . Politico . 13 September 2019 . 8 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200808034145/https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/13/republicans-clash-win-red-trump-1494754 . live .
  25. News: Crabtree . Susan . Top GOP Senate Campaigns Aren't Using WinRed . 8 May 2020 . RealClearPolitics . 24 July 2019 . 8 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201108002350/https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/07/24/top_gop_senate_campaigns_arent_rushing_to_winred__140851.html . live .
  26. News: Goldmacher . Shane . How Trump Steered Supporters Into Unwitting Donations . 3 April 2021 . The New York Times . 3 April 2021 . 1 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210501041057/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/us/politics/trump-donations.html . live .
  27. News: Goldmacher . Shane . G.O.P. Group Warns of 'Defector' List If Donors Uncheck Recurring Box . 7 April 2021 . The New York Times . 7 April 2021 . 7 April 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210407195528/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/us/politics/republicans-donations-trump.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur . live .
  28. News: Judge Says States Can Investigate WinRed's Fund-Raising Tactics . The New York Times . 26 January 2022 . Goldmacher . Shane . 10 July 2022 . 10 July 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220710191722/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/us/politics/winred-investigation-republican-fundraising.html . live .
  29. Web site: Giorno . Taylor . Campaign finance watchdog alleges WinRed processed billions in political contributions without disclosing operating expenses . OpenSecrets News . 29 July 2022 . 6 November 2023 . 13 September 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240913224315/https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/07/campaign-finance-watchdog-alleges-winred-processed-billions-in-political-contributions-without-disclosing-operating-expenses/ . live .
  30. Web site: It Isn’t Just ActBlue: WinRed Is Taking Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars From Elderly Idahoans Using Recurring Payments — One Donor Gave Over $478,500 In Just 2 Years . 2024-08-03 . Idaho Tribune . en-US . 2024-08-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240803071543/https://www.idahotribune.org/news/it-isnt-just-actblue-winred-is-taking-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars-from-elderly-idahoans-using-recurring-payments-one-donor-gave-over-478500-in-just-2-years . live .

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