Influential Democratic donors are reportedly pausing donations to left-wing activist groups, citing the Democratic Party’s failure thus far to articulate a new vision of electoral success after its bruising losses in November.
Democratic Party-affiliated advocacy groups are reportedly struggling for cash as left-wing organizers gear up to combat President Donald Trump’s agenda by protesting the president’s actions to cull the federal workforce and freeze government spending that does not align with American interests, according to a report by The New York Times published Friday. Despite deep-pocketed donors bankrolling resistance groups during the first Trump administration, many left-wing billionaires appear to be pulling back on giving due to party leaders appearing to learn few lessons from their November defeat.
Democratic donors’ reportedly turning off the spigot to left-wing groups follows a glaring example of party-affiliated groups spending donors’ money liberally while yielding few results. Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign and its allies spent roughly $1.5 billion to take on Trump, but still lost every swing state and the so-called popular vote. Harris’ campaign allegedly ended with roughly $20 million in debt, a Politico reporter claimed in November after speaking with sources.
“No one is giving until they see a plan for how we are going to better navigate this unprecedented situation and stop acting like this is a normal administration,” Alexandra Acker-Lyons, a political consultant who works with Silicon Valley donors, told the Times.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a major Democratic donor who funded E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump, has also indicated he may take a step back from funding an array of resistance 2.0 groups.
A spokesperson for Hoffman told the Times that the billionaire “thinks that the Democratic Party strategy needs to reform, and when it does, he’s happy to hear new ideas and new pitches.”
One Hoffman advisor notably moved to Canada after the election and told the Times that he’s given up on investing in left-wing activism in the United States.
Left-wing activist and Democratic Party-affiliated groups, including the Human Rights Campaign, Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), End Citizens United and Center for American Progress, have all cut staff in recent months as donors slow their pace of funding, according to the Times.
One Democratic-Party affiliated group, Run for Something, which works to elect down ballot Democratic candidates, laid off more than a third of its personnel after the presidential election, the Times reported.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) also fired hundreds of employees post-election defeat as party groups grappled with the tens of millions of dollars in debt the Harris campaign incurred.
Democratic Party donors’ reported frustration comes as many worry that the party has learned few lessons after losing the popular vote for the first time since 2004 last November.
The newly-elected DNC chairman Ken Martin raised eyebrows in January when he said “anyone saying we need to start over with a new message is wrong” just days before being elected party chairman.
“Clearly we have a brand and a perception problem,” Martin told the Times in an interview seeking to clarify his remarks. “While we [the Democratic Party] don’t need a wholesale abandonment of the issues, we do need to focus on the things that people desperately care about and we haven’t, because we’ve allowed ourselves to message to smaller and smaller parts of our coalition.”
Americans believe that abortion, LGBT rights and climate change are the most important issues to the Democratic Party, according to a New York Times-Ipsos poll released on Jan. 2 that surveyed 2,128 Americans.
Conversely, the most important issues to Americans are the economy, health care and immigration, according to the January poll.
“The [DNC] learned nothing from the last election,” major Democratic Florida donor John Morgan, who founded the personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, told the Times.
Despite electing Martin to lead the DNC, Democrats appear to still lack a clear leader or united strategy to lead the party to success during the upcoming 2026 midterms. Former White House press secretary under former President Joe Biden and MSNBC host Jen Psaki likened Democrats to being “in the wilderness” following Harris’ defeat and the GOP retaking control of the Senate.
The Democratic Party also reached a low approval rating of just 31% according to a January favorability rating recorded by Quinnipiac.
Despite this, many Democratic Party leaders are not backing away from messaging that voters appeared to reject in November.
Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, labeled Trump a fascist and said the party should be focused on defending the U.S. democracy against the president’s allegedly authoritarian executive actions in a recent interview with Politico.
“At some point, Democratic leaders need to break with decorum and be honest with themselves: Something is deeply wrong, and pretending otherwise won’t stop voters from noticing,” left-wing political strategist Waleed Shahid, told the Times.
The DNC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Story by Adam Pack of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
