The Republican online fundraising conduit WinRed is filing a complaint in United States District Court requesting legal relief from an inquiry into its business practices by four Democratic state attorneys general, arguing it is politically motivated harassment.
Attorneys general for Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, and New York are accusing WinRed of violating state laws by using pre-checked, recurring donation boxes to raise money for Republican candidates and groups utilizing the platform. But WinRed research revealed Democratic entities rely on the same practice, including campaign organizations for three of four attorneys general behind the inquiry.
Officials claim that proves the effort is political — a scheme to hamstring WinRed and undermine Republican fundraising ahead of 2022.
“Four Democrat Attorneys General are exploiting their positions of power for partisan gain and targeting WinRed for fundraising tactics that Democrats themselves pioneered and still use to this day,” WinRed said in a statement first shared with the Washington Examiner. “While pursuing these actions, these Democrat AGs are actively fundraising on ActBlue.”
Attorneys for WinRed plan to file a complaint requesting “declaratory relief” from the inquiry in U.S. District Court in Minnesota as early as Thursday morning, officials with the group informed the Washington Examiner late Wednesday. The complaint asks the court to quash the inquiry arguing the states have no jurisdiction over WinRed because it is a federal political action committee bound by federal law and Federal Election Commission regulations.
Additionally, WinRed’s complaint claims the attorneys general pursuing the inquiry — William Tong of Connecticut; Brian Frosh of Maryland; Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Letitia James of New York — are on a political fishing expedition to damage the organization because it threatens narrow Democratic majorities in Congress in the midterm elections. Alleging WinRed is breaking state law by using the same pre-checked, recurring donation boxes employed by Democrats is an excuse for their mischief, officials argue.
“Only when Republicans began challenging the Democrats’ long-held advantage in online fundraising did these Democrat Attorneys General activate,” WinRed said in its statement. “It’s troubling to see these AGs attempt to use the power of their offices for the purpose of helping the Democrat Party.”
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WinRed is the Republican counterpart to ActBlue, the Democratic online fundraising porthole.
ActBlue launched in 2004 and provided Democrats with a critical advantage in fundraising for several years, enabling the party’s candidates and groups to collect money easily with minimal expense from across the country. Republicans believe ActBlue is a key reason Democrats recaptured the House, in a 40-seat swing, in 2018. Meanwhile, in the 2020 election cycle, ActBlue funneled $4.8 billion to Democratic candidates and liberal political and nonprofit organizations.
But though WinRed, unveiled in 2019, Republicans are closing the fundraising gap with Democrats, making the GOP more competitive in the 2022 midterm elections when the party hopes to win back the House and Senate.
WinRed raised more than $2 billion for Republican candidates and other entities in less than two years last cycle. So far this year, WinRed has funneled more than $255 million to Republican candidates and groups, including $131.2 million in the second quarter.
That’s the only reason the quartet of Democratic attorneys general, including Ellison, former deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is targeting WinRed, Republican operatives who run the platform argue. However, WinRed came under fire in early April after the New York Times reported it allows Republicans to use a feature that automatically enrolls grassroots contributors in recurring donation programs without their consent.
Several donors, who contributed to former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign last year through WinRed, later complained the involuntary use of the pre-checked, recurring donations cost them money they did not intend to give and could not afford. The inquiry into WinRed’s business practices by the four Democratic attorneys general took issue with this practice, as well as making the pre-check box available for voluntary use.
In a joint letter to WinRed’s attorneys, they said the use of pre-check boxes generally ran afoul of their states’ consumer-protection laws, which they argued are not superseded by federal election law.
“These laws protect our residents from deceptive, unfair and fraudulent practices in the solicitation of contributions, including the use of pre-checked boxes to trap donors into making unintended recurring donations. Our state consumer protection laws are not preempted by the Federal Election Campaign Act,” the letter read.
WinRed pointed out the Ellison, Frosh, and James campaigns have used voluntary pre-check donor boxes. Additionally, some Democratic campaigns and entities that have donation pages on ActBlue currently and in the past have used involuntary pre-check boxes, which require a donor to uncheck the recurring contribution box preemptively to avoid unintended future giving.
Among them include President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
