GOP’s new donor portal WinRed has underperformed and gotten off to a ‘rocky’ start: report

In late June, the Republican Party unveiled its new donor portal WinRed. The GOP had high hopes for the website, insisting that it had the potential to seriously ramp up grassroots donations to Republican candidates. But according to a report by the Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay, WinRed “has had what could charitably be described as a rocky launch.”

During its first week, Markay reports, WinRed raised “just $184,000.” However, he goes on to report that “operations have improved since then” at WinRed, according to its officials. One source told the Daily Beast that WinRed helped raise almost $4 million during the last four days of July, although the source doesn’t expect that pace to continue.

WinRed, Markay notes, was launched to compete with the Democratic fundraising/donor platform ActBlue, which brought in $250 million in campaign contributions during 2019’s second quarter.

Despite its “rocky launch,” Markay reports, WinRed is still “positioned to be the go-to outlet for the” GOP establishment. Some conservative groups have tried to build a competitor to WinRed, according to Markay, but WinRed has enjoyed the support of top GOP committees and President Donald Trump himself. Trump, in fact, tweeted his support for WinRed on June 24:

In an e-mail to the Daily Beast, WinRed President Gerrit Lansing insisted that the platform is shaping up to be a formidable competitor to ActBlue (which Democrats unveiled in 2004).

“In little more than a month,” Lansing wrote, “WinRed has shown that it is well on its way to competing with ActBlue. We’re clear-eyed about the 15-year head start they have, but thanks to President Trump and a united Republican Party, we’re well on our way towards finally solving this small-dollar donor problem.”

But Markay, reporting donations from June, notes that so far, WinRed is proving to be “more a tool for party officials than a facilitator of grassroots giving that it was designed to be.”