I always knew the number was BIG based on the 2016 reaction of Reince Priebus; however, I never fathomed the scale of Trump’s donor base was this much bigger than the RNC.
The number of email-subscribers, specific financial supporters who ultimately create the donor outreach list, is a closely held datapoint by the RNC and DNC, and yet it surfaces buried in a discussion by outgoing RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel. Check this out (emphasis mine):
Politico – […] McDaniel briefly became emotional when she discussed her family’s support after Trump chose her to take the role as RNC chair. And she lauded changes made at the party while she was in charge, including the creation of the WinRed online fundraising platform, growing the RNC’s email list from 3 million to 50 million subscribers and “engaging minority voters and bringing them into the party.” McDaniel cited GOP gains in 2022 with Asian, Hispanic and Black voters.
I wrote about this in 2016 during the Republican primary when Donald Trump was starting to dominate the field. [SEE HERE]
When candidate Trump became the presumptive nominee, and after he secured the required number of delegates, the procedural process within the RNC/candidate agreement required the winning nominee to turn over his donor files.
You might well remember how suddenly Reince Priebus went from reluctantly accepting Trump, to being an extraordinarily enthusiastic supporter of candidate Trump’s policies. Within weeks the RNC essentially allowed team Trump to write the entire 2016 platform; it was a rather stunning shift in position for Priebus and the RNC that could only be explained by the RNC chair seeing something extraordinary in the data.
Well, that admission by Ronna McDaniel well explains the scale of that data transfer. Prior to the era of MAGA and Trump, the RNC had a registered subscriber/donor list of around 3 million small donors. Today, thanks to the MAGA movement and the support network of small donors that assembled with Trump, that number is now 50 million.
Jumpin’ ju-ju bones. From 3 to 50 million, all because of Donald Trump. Wow.