Trump campaign's small-dollar donations surge, marking major shift for GOPThe Republican Party has long been panned by its detractors as the party of big money and big donors -- but donation patterns have changed measurably under President Trump, a Fox News analysis of campaign finance data shows.
Sixty-one percent of money raised directly by the Trump campaign this election cycle came from small donors (donations under $200), according to Federal Election Commission figures.
That is similar to the proportion Trump raised during the 2016 election cycle, when 65 percent of donations were under $200. And this is dramatically higher than previous Republican nominees. Mitt Romney raised 26 percent of his direct contributions from small donations in 2012, and John McCain raised 25 percent from small donations in 2008.
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Democratic presidential candidates also improved their grassroots fundraising compared with previous cycles. Among the 20 Democrats who made the debate stage this year, 51 percent of individual contributions were from small donors. That's up from 26 percent for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and 43 percent for then-President Barack Obama in 2012.
Those figures vary significantly from candidate to candidate, however, with Sen. Cory Booker getting just 21 percent from small donors, former Vice President Joe Biden getting 38 percent and Sen. Kamala Harris getting 41 percent. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg has 49 percent from small donors, with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard at 61 percent, tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 67 percent, and Sen. Bernie Sanders at 77 percent (the most).
An interesting contrast between Trump and Hillary, as well as between Trump and Romney and McCain.
