ActBlue (PAC)

The ActBlue website was launched in 2004 by Ben Rahn and Matt DeBergalis as a fundraising platform for left-wing organizations and candidates.² The ActBlue PAC was formed five years later in 2009. ³ According to its own figures, ActBlue has helped to raise $2.4 billion for its clients since its creation.⁴

ActBlue is divided into three component organizations, each of which deals with a specific type of donation. ActBlue Non-Federal deals with contributions to state-level candidates and political action committees, ActBlue Civics manages contributions to 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations, and ActBlue Charities manages contributions to 501(c)(3) nonprofits.²

As part of its fundraising service, ActBlue provides fundraising software that allows its clients to maximize their fundraising activity without building out their own fundraising platform. These tools are available on all three of the organization’s platforms.⁵

ActBlue has been described as a fundraising conduit for organizations supporting state ballot initiatives, including The Fairness Project. ⁶

Campaign Contributions

ActBlue Non-Federal has contributed to 13 other PACs since 2004.⁷ Donation recipients include the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Progressive Change Campaign, and the Collective PAC.

2018 Election Cycle

In August 2018, ActBlue surpassed $1 billion in contributions to Democratic Party PACs and political candidates for the 2018 election cycle. This amount accumulated through small-dollar donations, which averaged $34.⁸

As a reaction to the high number of small-dollar donations ActBlue receives, some Republican Party politicians voiced concerns in October 2018 that there is no ActBlue equivalent aiding Republicans, leaving them in a fundraising disadvantage.⁹ Representative Jim Banks (R-Indiana) on October 23rd started StopSpeakerPelosi.com to raise small-dollar donations averaging $46 evenly distributed for 23 crucial GOP house elections needed to maintain a majority. As of October 26th, the organization has raised nearly $67,000.¹⁰ Among the campaigns supported by StopSpeakerPelosi, it includes Representatives Rod Blum (R-Iowa), Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Barbara Comstock (R-Virginia), David Brat (R-Virginia), and Carlos Curbelo (R-Florida).¹⁰

Client List

ActBlue publishes a client list of¹¹ political action committees that use ActBlue’s website as a way to raise funds. ¹¹ This list of solely left-of-center groups includes: Color of Change PAC, the Collective PAC, and 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s Onward Together PAC.^{1213 7}

2020 Election Cycle

During the 2020 election cycle, reports indicate that ActBlue served as the conduit for more than $5.1 billion in contributions, leading the combined cash reserves of ActBlue PAC, and their credit card fee processing wing, ActBlue Technical Services, to climb to $172.8 million by the end of 2020. ¹⁴ During the cycle, ActBlue accepted donations from small-dollar donors to support an initiative by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) to help Democrats flip state legislatures within Republican-controlled states in 2020, as part of a means of controlling the process of redistricting congressional lines. ¹⁵

2021 Fundraising

On July 7, 2021, New York Times journalist Shane Goldmacher reported via Twitter that ActBlue processed almost $599.6 million since January 1, 2021. ¹⁶ While only half the amount of money ActBlue processed in the first six months of 2020, it was $180 million more than the organization had processed in the first six months of 2019, indicating substantial growth even in non-election years. March 2021 brought the most money for ActBlue with $116.8 million, while April brought the least with $85 million.

2022 Election Cycle

According to data collected by Watch Dog Lab, during the 2021-2022 election cycle ActBlue PAC received nearly $2.3 billion in 91 separate donations from roughly 6.8 million individual donors. Further data shows that 3.3 million individual donors identified as “not employed” for an employer, and 3.4 million identified as “not employed” for an occupation. ¹⁷ According to the report, a majority of the total donations received were passed through as “earmarks” to nearly 3,400 left-of-center or left-wing organizations or political campaigns during the 2021-2022 election cycle. The largest ActBlue recipient belonged to groups campaigning for Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) during his 2021 run-off campaign and 2022 midterm election campaigns, receiving roughly $185 million in total from “earmarks.” ¹⁷ The largest registered contributor to ActBlue PAC during the election cycle was philanthropist and Democratic activist Karla Jurvetson, who made 457 contributions to the PAC, totaling $2.3 million in overall donations. ¹⁷

Controversies

Hurricane Michael (2018)

On October 11, 2018, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) released an email and a tweet urging people to donate to ActBlue for hurricane relief, despite the organization’s role as a Democratic Party fundraising service and not a disaster relief charity.¹⁸

Fundraising for Politicians Accused of Sexual Misconduct and Domestic Violence

As of August 2021, the Washington Free Beacon reported that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s reelection fundraising page was still active at ActBlue despite credible accusations of sexual harassment against him, which were later confirmed by the New York Attorney General. ¹⁹ Reporters argued that maintaining Cuomo’s fundraising page despite the allegations contradicts the precedent ActBlue set in 2020 when it permanently suspended Democratic Kansas state representative Aaron Coleman’s page after he admitted to circulating revenge porn depicting an ex-girlfriend when he was 12 and making murder threats against another ex-girlfriend in 2019. ¹⁹

The day after the Washington Free Beacon’s article was published, reporters at Axios confirmed that Cuomo’s ActBlue fundraising page had officially been shut down. ²⁰

Other politicians whose Actblue platforms remained active long after allegations of sexual misconduct and violence against women included New York state senator, Luis Sepulveda, who was arrested in January 2021 for assaulting his wife, and Minnesota state representative, John Thompson, who was accused of choking his girlfriend and exposing his genitals to multiple women while children were present. ¹⁹ Actblue also maintained a donation portal for Midwest Values, a PAC associated with former Minnesota senator Al Franken. ²¹ Franken resigned in 2018 after at least eight women accused him of forcibly groping and kissing them. ²²

Misleading Tip Solicitations

In 2021, reports suggested legal and ethical concerns surrounding the fundraising tactics of ActBlue. While ActBlue has stated that they do not profit from the 3.95 percent processing fee which they charge for donations made on their platform. ActBlue Technical Services, the organization’s nonprofit credit card processing fee division, has reported paying more than $1 million in income tax on tips that it has received since 2013. ActBlue asks donors to make “tips” to ActBlue Technical Services for the purpose of keeping the organization running and handling administrative and operational costs, and claims that 1.5 percent of the 3.95 percent processing fee is utilized for the upkeep of their service.²³ From 2013 to 2020, ActBlue accumulated $147.7 million in tips, exceeding their operational costs, but continued to solicit tips on the basis that the funding was necessary to continue operations. Former National Republican Congressional Committee General Counsel, Chris Winkelman, stated that “If ActBlue’s claims of tips being essential to their operation are in fact false, and donors are making contributions based on those claims, this raises serious legal concerns.” ¹⁴

Alleged Illegal Straw Donors

In October 2024, U.S House Administration Committee chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) submitted a letter to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones regarding potential illegal straw donations being made to ActBlue from foreign entities including China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela. The letter read, “Our investigation has indicated that these [foreign] actors may be exploiting existing U.S. [sic] donors by making straw donations without the individuals’ or your platform’s knowledge,” while demanding “information on ActBlue’s donor verification policies.” ²⁴ ActBlue responded with a statement arguing ““We rigorously protect our donors’ security and enforce strict anti-fraud compliance policies. We have zero tolerance for fraud on our platform and are confident in our longstanding reputation as a trusted and reliable digital fundraising platform.” ²⁴

Department of Justice Investigation

In April 2025, President Trump announced he directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate ActBlue and its entities over allegations of illegal donations being made by people through the fundraising platform under different names (or straw donations) as well as alleged foreign contributions and donations being made to ActBlue. ²⁵ Later on, ActBlue was the subject of scrutiny in an interim joint report issued by the Republican-led House Committee on House Administration, House Judiciary Committee, and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The report alleged that the platform had adopted more lenient donation standards during a recent presidential election cycle and identified instances of fraudulent contributions, including some associated with foreign sources. According to the report, ActBlue detected multiple domestic and foreign fraud campaigns on its platform. Reporting by The New York Post cited internal documents describing “dubious contributions,” including those linked to foreign IP addresses. ⁶

In April 2026, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), chairman of the House Committee on House Administration, announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he had requested ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones to testify in front of the House Committee regarding the ongoing investigation. ²⁶ In May 2026, Steil introduced the Campaign Finance Transparency Act and the Preventing Foreign Influence in American Elections Act. The proposed legislation would impose new transparency and donor verification requirements on political donation processors, including ActBlue and its Republican counterpart, WinRed. Among other provisions, the bills would prohibit political donations made with gift cards, require payment card names to match donor identities, and mandate citizenship or residency verification for donors without U.S. mailing addresses. ²⁷

In May 2026, ActBlue sued Ken Paxton, alleging that his investigation into the platform constituted politically motivated retaliation and violated its First Amendment rights. ²⁷

Leadership

Matt DeBergalis, chairman of the board of directors, and Benjamin Rahn, advisor to the board chair and former executive director, co-founded ActBlue in 2004. ^{28 29}

Erin Hill serves as executive director of ActBlue. ³⁰

Jonathan Zucker, the founder of It Starts Today, worked at ActBlue from 2005 to 2008 as chief operations officer and counsel, senior strategist, executive director, and as a member of the organization’s board of directors. ³¹ Prior to his tenure at ActBlue, Zucker acted as the national director of operations for finance at the Democratic National Committee.³¹⁷

Other Activities

Patriot Pass

After the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, Republican figures such as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel agreed to promote a new small-dollar donation internet platform called “Patriot Pass” to rival ActBlue. The intention is to combine the RNC’s voter data bank (Data Trust) and the Trump campaign’s donation processor (Revv) to form the new platform. This is an attempt to consolidate a variety of Republican donation websites and will require other donation platforms like Victory Passport to eventually shut down. While the Republican Party does not intend to launch the website until February 2019 and do not expect it to be an immediate rival to ActBlue, the program has support from National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Emmer (R-MN) and White House aide Jared Kushner. The project is being overseen by Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale. ³²

Post-2024 Presidential Election Resignations

Between February and March 2025, it was announced that at least 7 senior officials had resigned following the 2024 Presidential Election that saw President Donald Trump re-elected. According to a story by the New York Times, several unions representing ActBlue had released a letter to the organization’s board of directors listing the employees whom resigned while claiming the “alarming pattern” was negatively impacting “…our confidence in the stability of the organization.” ³³ According to the letter from both unions, those whom left included the organization’s customer service and partnerships directors, which included ActBlue’s former vice president of customer service Alyssa Twomey whom later wrote on social media, “After 14+ years of living and breathing all things ActBlue, it’s time for a reset. I’m taking an intentional pause before setting course for my next adventure.” ³³ In addition, other resignations included the group’s associate general counsel, the assistant research director, one human resources official, the chief revenue officer and a donation engineer. The New York Times article also claimed that a lawyer in the ActBlue general counsel’s office, Zain Ahmad, was on leave from the organization while his previous access to emails and internal platforms within the group had been cut off around February 26. In a statement on ActBlue’s Slack platform, Ahmad claimed, “Please be advised that we have Anti-Retaliation and Whistleblower Policies for a reason.” ³³ The unions’ letter claimed Ahmad’s statements were, “unsettling and disturbing, and part of a growing pattern of volatility and toxicity stemming from current leadership.” ³³

Aquisition of Digital Firm Impactive

In September 2025, it was announced that ActBlue had bought Impactive, a digital firm that had previously been used by Democratic electoral campaigns. Previously called OutVote, Impactive uses online tools towards voter outreach such as canvassing and phonebanking while previous clients using the service have included the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) as well as Democratic Party campaigns for the U.S House and Senate. ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones released a statement to Politico arguing “This is about more than the technology — it’s about access…[w]e’re putting million-dollar campaign capabilities in the hands of every Democratic candidate, regardless of their budget or team size.” ³⁴