As 15 U.S. Senators stood with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) during his nearly 13-hour filibuster on Wednesday, Americans joined in on Twitter, using the hashtag #StandWithRand to show their support. After the hashtag went viral on twitter, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) was quick to capitalize on the surge of positive energy toward the GOP that Paul’s dramatic speech was creating.
The campaign committee launched a Stand with Rand fundraising campaign approximately four hours into the filibuster that encouraged Republicans to, “Defend your Constitution — #StandWithRand — Support Team #filibuster during #filiblizzard,” the website donation page said, referencing the winter storm that moved through the D.C. area on Wednesday.
By midday on Thursday, the campaign had raised more than $75,000 dollars, NRSC Strategist and Communications Director Brad Dayspring told Red Alert Politics in an email. The campaign was actually suggested by Twitter user @ComfortablySmug, Dayspring noted, and the NRSC took him up on the idea.
“The best ideas come from the foot soldiers, the real people, and we try to to listen to everyone to the extent possible,” he said.
Why oh why has @nrsc not put up a donation splash page and tweeted out the link with #StandWithRand ? $$$ cc @bdayspring
— ComfortablySmug (@ComfortablySmug) March 6, 2013
A post about the campaign on the NRSC Facebook page garnered 5,000 likes in its first 30 minutes, according to a press release. At the time of this story, the post had more than 48,500 likes.
