The “victory” part didn’t pan out for the Harris Victory Fund. But the funding part remains alive and well on the bank statements of some Democratic donors.
Two months after Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump, the joint fundraising committee her campaign set up with the Democratic National Committee is still charging monthly recurring donors to the committee. And some donors are not happy.
“It’s silly, out of touch, and needlessly takes advantage of our most loyal supporters,” said a Democratic operative who shared screenshots of their donations. The person was granted anonymity to describe the situation without fear of professional reprisal.
The operative didn’t flinch at a December charge, given the wrap-up expenses associated with any campaign (though the Harris camp entered late November with more than $1.8 million in cash).
But a January charge? The Harris donor said the committee solicited no explicit approval to continue the donations after the election, though it sent emails saying, “Thank you for your generous monthly commitment,” and that the donations will continue “until you contact us.”
The ongoing debits constitute the latest dust-up over the ethics of online fundraising — particularly when it comes to signing up small-dollar donors for recurring credit-card contributions that get set on autopilot.
The 2020 Trump campaign raised gobs of cash in part by making it increasingly difficult for donors to see that they were signing up for monthly automatic donations, including hiding it in pre-checked boxes buried in fine print. Those tactics helped result in more than a half million refunds totalling $64 million for the last two and a half months of 2020 from the Trump campaign, the RNC and joint committees — far outpacing their Democratic counterparts.
The Harris Victory Fund situation is different: No one appears to be disputing that they signed up for monthly withdrawals. But should those contributions continue even after victory has slipped away?
Harris herself told Democrats to “stay in the fight,” a DNC official said. And while a Harris Victory Fund donation page remains active on ActBlue, the fund itself is now defunct and any contributions go directly to the DNC.
“Those HVF donations are going to help Democrats across the country as we rebuild the party,” the official said, adding that donors can cancel anytime.
The fact that the funds are now being redirected, however, raises another ethical quandary: Is that fair to donors who contributed to an entity with Harris’ name on it? The soon-to-be-ex-VP won’t have any access to the money as she evaluates her political future and whether to run for president again, governor of California or stay out of politics.
To many political pros, that is one of many reasons why it should be a best practice to cease drawing on donor bank accounts after Election Day.
A senior digital staffer on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign said all of their recurring donations ended within a few days after his loss. That person said the Harris fund’s decision to continue tapping small-dollar donors was “super shady” and tantamount to “grifting.”
“These people didn’t sign up to be paying bills in January,” the Republican said.
Mike Nellis, head of the Democratic online fundraising firm Authentic, said when his clients’ campaigns end in defeat, “there’s an expectation that they’re going to shut down the recurring donations because there’s no need.”
But he said he was OK with the DNC continuing to pull donations from Harris donors.
“If you’re rolling the committee into something that’s gonna continue to have an impact such as the DNC or another political campaign, I’m more than comfortable continuing the recurring donations so long as it’s transparent to the donor and compliant with ActBlue and the FEC,” he said.
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