A fundraiser to defeat Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky Senate race has raised over $13 million overnight and continues to rapidly increase since the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Update 4:00 PM: Since publishing at 9:51 AM PT, the campaign has now raised over $17 million from nearly 200,000 donors.
McConnell vowed hours after the Supreme Court Justice’s death that President Trump’s replacement nominee would get a vote on the Senate floor. Trump followed that up on Saturday morning, telling the GOP that they have an “obligation, without delay,” to select a new Supreme Court justice. It was not clear when McConnell intended to hold the new vote.
The campaign called “Get Mitch or Die Trying” is led by the progressive group Crooked Media and hosted on ActBlue, a nonprofit fundraising platform for left-leaning and progressive groups. Donations to the campaign are split among candidates in races in key swing states where Republicans are defending seats and could be at risk of losing a majority, including Colorado, Maine, Iowa, Alabama, Michigan, Texas and Kansas.
“Since becoming Senate Majority leader in 2015, Mitch McConnell has stolen a seat on the Supreme Court, tried to take health care away from 20 million Americans, and stopped the Senate from doing anything that isn’t confirming extreme right-wing judges to lifetime appointments,” the campaign reads. “But here’s the good news: Mitch could lose his current job this November. Not only is he up for re-election, but more importantly, the Republican party is defending 22 Senate seats, and they only control the Senate by three.”
The New York Times reported on Friday night that ActBlue has seen $45 million of contributions to Democratic causes since Justice Ginburg’s passing, twice topping records for the most donations per hour processed, including $6.3 million in the 10 p.m. ET hour, averaging more than $100,000 per minute.
The previous highest record donation for a single hour on ActBlue, according to the Times, was after Joe Biden’s speech on the final night of the Democratic Convention on August 20, when $4.3 million of donations were gathered.
McConnell himself is up for re-election and is running against Democrat Amy McGrath in Kentucky. Based on a new Quinnipiac poll on Wednesday, The Courier-Journal reported that McConnell leads McGrath in the Senate race by a double-digit margin.
McGrath also tweeted in response to McConnell’s vow to replace Ginsburg Friday night.
“Ruth Bader Ginsburg lived a towering life. She should be admired, remembered, and honored. It would be nice if our politics allowed even a day to pass before pouncing on the death of a patriot for political purposes,” she said. “But my opponent has already done so, contradicting his stance on filling vacancies. Such is the custom in Mitch McConnell’s Washington.”
McGrath was also quick to point out what she called the precedent of the “McConnell Rule,” in which McConnell prevented a vote on Barack Obama’s replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016.