The $2 Billion Powerhouse Behind Jon Ossoff

ActBlue wants to use Bernie-style fundraising to win in Georgia—and across the country.

ANDY KROLL JULY/AUGUST 2017 ISSUE

Minutes after House Republicans rammed through their Obamacare repeal bill on May 4, a rallying cry went out on Twitter: Want revenge on the lawmakers who voted yes? Click here to give $5 to defeat them in next year’s midterms.

Stalwart lefty groups like Daily Kos and anti-Trump newcomers such as Swing Left mobilized their angry followers by sending them to a simple web page where, with the press of a button, they could donate to the Democratic challengers of Republicans in competitive districts. In just 24 hours, Daily Kos and Swing Left announced they’d collected about 37,200 individual donations totaling a whopping $1.6 million.

This impressive blitz was made possible by an outfit called ActBlue, which has emerged as the fundraising tool of choice for the swelling anti-Trump resistance. At ActBlue’s headquarters just outside Boston, a massive LCD monitor that displays website traffic and incoming contributions went haywire immediately after the health care vote. ActBlue was processing about 275 donations per minute; the real-time dollar ticker on its website struggled to keep pace. All told, ActBlue helped raise more than $4.2 million in small-dollar increments for 1,200 different campaigns and outfits on the day of the vote.

Under normal circumstances, a $4.2 million day in May of a nonelection year would be inconceivable. But these aren’t normal times, and ActBlue has arguably become the best weapon in the Democratic arsenal as progressives clamor to fight back. Indivisible has raised $2.2 million from over 30,000 donations, the vast majority of it through ActBlue. Jon Ossoff, the upstart Georgia Democrat running to fill the seat of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, has used ActBlue to help raise $23 million (and counting), enabling him to mount a serious campaign for a district that’s been in Republican hands for almost 40 years. “There is zero chance that we would be able to raise this much money on any other platform,” says Greg Berlin, a consultant for Ossoff’s campaign.

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