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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
How AOC built a Democratic fundraising juggernaut
By David Wright, CNN
Updated:
11:14 AM EDT, Tue August 26, 2025
Source: CNN
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is building a fundraising juggernaut that is
rivaling some of the Democratic Party’s core infrastructure,
prompting questions about both her future and the party’s.
Small-dollar donations – contributions of less than $200 – are the
lifeblood of campaigns and a key measure of voter enthusiasm. And on
ActBlue, Democrats’ largest online fundraising platform, the New York
congresswoman received the third-most small-dollar donations in the
first half of the year.
That trailed only the Democratic National Committee and the party’s
Senate campaign arm, key party infrastructure. Ocasio-Cortez beat the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House campaign arm,
and every other individual candidate.
Ocasio-Cortez raised nearly $15 million total in the first half of 2025
from 736,000 contributions, an average of $20 a donor. Notably, her
fundraising spiked after the March announcement that she would join
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ national “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
“There’s too many in the Democratic Party who like to criticize
Bernie or be in friction with him. Far fewer have seen the political
power of embracing him. AOC always has,” said Faiz Shakir, a senior
Sanders adviser.
Waleed Shahid, a Democratic strategist who has worked on several
progressive campaigns, argued that Ocasio-Cortez could reshape the
party’s larger direction by sidelining big donors.
“History shows that independent political and fundraising operations
often do more to change a party’s direction than the party’s own
infrastructure,” Shahid said.
And David Axelrod, the veteran Democratic political strategist, said
that Ocasio-Cortez was well-positioned to lead her party into the
future.
“She has extraordinary communication skills. She is very authentic.
She has a very clear point of view and knows how to communicate it in
modern media. She’s done well and I’m sure her name will surface in
speculation about future elections,” said Axelrod, a CNN contributor.
The DCCC declined to comment.
Facebook ads and the Sanders alliance
Ocasio-Cortez’s US House campaign has plowed more than $500,000 into
Facebook and Google advertising over the last three months, much of it
aimed at fundraising and collecting voter contact information, while
she’s lent her fundraising prowess to a range of high-profile
candidates and causes.
Her tour appearances with Sanders contributed to her strongest-ever
fundraising quarter in the first three months of this year, during
which she a total of $9.6 million. And according to her campaign’s
most recent FEC report, Ocasio-Cortez had  in cash on hand as of
June 30.
Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager and senior
adviser, noted that her campaign has only four “double-max” donors,
meaning they gave the federal limit of $6,600 for both a primary
campaign and the general election.
“Our focus is taking on the Trump administration as he sells pieces
of the government to the highest bidder and guts Medicaid and food
stamps for kids,” Hidalgo-Wohlleben said in an email. “We will
continue to be active in NY-14, NY state, and across the country to
hold him and Republicans accountable.”
Ocasio-Cortez has directed her supporters to give to a range of other
causes that she supports,  school supplies for community residents,
and aid for the population of Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Ocasio-Cortez has described Israel’s conduct of the war as a
“genocide.”
And after stepping in to endorse Zohran Mamdani – the democratic
socialist state assemblyman who scored an upset victory in New York
City’s Democratic primary for mayor earlier this summer –
Ocasio-Cortez has also been helping to raise funds for his general
election campaign.
“It’s time for Democratic leaders to unite behind Zohran Mamdani.
If they don’t now, how can they call for party unity later? We must
lead by example. Let’s win together,” she wrote in a recent
fundraising missive.
Shakir, the Sanders adviser, argued top Democrats should take better
note of Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani’s ability to invigorate the
party’s grassroots and “the great political and policy
possibilities of being working-class candidates with integrity.”
“If the brand and reputation of the Democratic Party is to be
improved, we need more engagement with real voters, broader support
from working class donors, and more strategic policy input from regular
people,” he said.
What are her plans with the funds?
Ocasio-Cortez represents a safe Democratic district, one she won with a
successful primary challenge of former Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018 by
running to his left.
She won reelection last year by nearly 40 points and has established a
strong national profile. Ocasio-Cortez was among the most favorably
viewed national figures in a published this month.
The $10 million in her account could be fully transferred to any future
federal campaign or to a bid for state office with some
restrictions. Some of her allies want her to challenge Sen. Chuck
Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, in 2028.
Ocasio-Cortez’s aides aren’t commenting about her future.
But Ocasio-Cortez turned 35 last October – the minimum age required
to run for president – and her name is now also being mentioned in
conversations about the 2028 White House race.
“Whether people feel like she’s ready to run the United States of
America or govern the United States of America, I can’t answer
that,” Axelrod said. “Voters will answer that question, if she
runs. But I think she’ll have a devoted following if she does, and
that will make her a factor in the race, if that’s what she decides
to do.”
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