Political-Fund-raising
Credit union members whose accounts were handled by Velera favored Democrats by more than 2-to-1 in the 2024 election, but that dominance slipped slightly in the final two months of the campaign.
Velera, the nation's largest payments CUSO, released data Wednesday showing members donated $2.60 to Democrats for every $1 they donated to Republicans by credit card in October, down from a 3.2-1 ratio in September.
Debit was similar: Donations favored Democratic candidates and causes by a 2.2-1 ratio in October, down from 2.7-to-1 in September.
Velera began reporting these numbers in its monthly Velera Payments Index, starting with data for June. The major routes for donations were ActBlue for Democrats and WinRed for Republicans. Those either non-partisan or not easily identified by party were categorized as "mixed."
“Similar to the 2020 election cycle, the volume of transactions and purchases continued to increase until the week of the election, although the 2024 indexed values were not as sharp of an increase as compared to 2020,” this month’s report said.
Democratic donations surged in July and August, following President Biden's poor debate performance against Donald Trump June 27 and Biden's withdrawal from the race and endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on July 21.
But in the fall, donations moved back toward the April-through-October average of favoring Democrats by 2.6-to-1 by credit and 2.2-to-1 by debit.
Velera showed average credit card and debit donations also favored Democrats in October, but the amounts to Republicans rose for the second month in a row.
The average October donation to Republicans was $31.49 by credit card, up 3.3% from September, and $23.04 by debit (+6.6%).
For Democrats, the average October donation was $39.77 by credit (-4.8%) and $25.80 by debit (+0.8%).
Republicans drew more votes in the 2024 presidential and congressional elections, but Democrats raised more money. OpenSecrets.org showed Democrats raised $3.5 billion and Republicans raised $2.5 billion in those races, favoring Democrats by a 1.4-1 ratio.
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