Velera Report Shows Democrats Expand Majority in Donations

If you want a hint of the political leanings of members of America’s credit unions, reports from the nation’s largest payments CUSO suggest you think blue.

The Velera Payments Index released Thursday showed political spending among credit unions whose payments are handled by the St. Petersburg, Fla., CUSO spiked from June to July, with Democrats expanding their large majority.

The spending also spiked from four years earlier. Overall political spending in July 2020 compared with July 2024 rose 32% by credit and doubled by debit. In July this year, the credit card split was 72% to Democrats and 20% to Republicans, while the debit split was 63% to Democrats and 26% to Republicans.

Democrats gained share from June when the credit card split was 61% to Democrats and 28% to Republicans, while the debit split was 49% to Democrats and 38% to Republicans.

The most common payees were ActBlue for Democrats and WinRed for Republicans. Payments not easily identified by party were 8% of credit card payments and 11% of debit payments in July.

Within the numbers there was a large spike in the week after President Joe Biden announced he would drop out of his bid for re-election, and Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in.

“While there were similar spikes in weekly activity that aligned to increases during the 2020 presidential campaign season, the last week of July 2024 has dramatically increased when compared to 2020 and compared to prior weeks in 2024 amidst a very different political situation,” the report said.

“With the confirmation of Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate, donations to ActBlue soared, raising $81 million in the 24-hour period after President Biden announced he would not seek reelection,” the report said. “As history has a habit of repeating itself, we continue to expect the volume of transactions and purchases to continue increasing until November, similar to 2020 patterns, and will continue to monitor activity in this merchant category through the 2024 presidential election cycle.”

Average donations to Democrats remained higher than to Republicans in July and Democrats had a larger increase in average donations from June to July.

The average donation to Democrats in July was $43.38 by credit card, up 9.4% from June, and $27.09 by debit (+8.2%).

Average Republican donation in July was $32.92 (+1.9%) by credit and $24.51 (-2.1%) by debit.

Political spending is a tiny fraction of spending tracked by Velera, and the report showed total July spending rose 0.2% by credit and rose 3.2% by debit from a year earlier. By comparison, on Thursday Census reported retail spending, excluding automobiles and parts, rose 4.2% in July from a year earlier, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday reported the Consumer Price Index rose 2.9% over the 12 months.

Spending by category showed:

• Grocery store spending rose 2.4% in July from a year earlier, Census reported. At Velera, spending fell 1% by credit and fell 1% by debit.
• Gasoline spending rose 0.7% in July from a year earlier, Census reported. At Velera, spending fell 4% by credit and fell 2% by debit.
• Spending at restaurants and bars rose 2.1% in July from a year earlier, Census reported. At Velera, spending fell 2% by credit and fell 1% by debit.

The Velera Payments Index is based on data from credit unions that have been processing payments with Velera since January 2022. This month’s report encompassed 3.3 billion transactions valued at $166 billion of credit and debit card activity in the 12 months ending July 31.