Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) sent out a fundraising email on Thursday, soliciting donations for the victims of California's ongoing wildfires. It's a noble cause, considering the many lives lost and catastrophic damage sustained across the state.
But one detail she left out of the email has raised eyebrows: All donation links directed respondents through a Democratic clearinghouse, which collects emails and builds donor lists exclusively for left-wing causes.
The Washington Free Beacon reported on Friday that Harris utilized the services of ActBlue, an organization that boasts that it has raised more than $3 billion for Democratic and progressive causes since 2004.
According to its website, nearly 5.8 million Democratic donors have saved their payment information with the group via an ActBlue Express account, which means they can easily make donations with a "single-click automatic payment link" — resulting in "higher conversion rates" for solicitors.
It's not surprising that Harris would utilize ActBlue's services, given that, according to the site, "a majority of Democratic Senate and House campaigns — along with the DCCC, DSCC, DGA, over one-third of statewide campaigns, and advocacy groups around the country — have chosen ActBlue."
Yet, not disclosing the connection with the organization means good-hearted folks giving their hard-earned treasure for wildfire victims are unwittingly being funneled to a Democratic operative organization whose reason for existence is to collect their information and solicit them for political causes.
The Free Beacon also pointed out that Harris isn't the first senator to use a natural disaster to direct donors to ActBlue. Last month, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) sent a fundraising email listing nonprofits who provide aid for hurricane disaster relief; all links were directed to an ActBlue platform, with no disclosure of the group's connection to Democratic causes, or to their purpose.
Nelson also tweeted out the link, for good measure:
The devastation from #HurricaneMichael is widespread across the Panhandle and Big Bend in Florida. Anything you can give to these nonprofit organizations will help people with needed relief. https://t.co/RFd59Dty4q pic.twitter.com/1MARpUE6C4
— Nelson for U.S. Senate (@NelsonForSenate) October 10, 2018
