Today, ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones appeared before a Republican-led congressional committee and exercised her Fifth Amendment right under the U.S. Constitution. This right is available to every American. It is a legal protection that exists precisely for moments like this, when a congressional inquiry has crossed from legitimate oversight into political targeting.
What is suspicious is why Republicans are so focused on ActBlue while their own fundraising platform, WinRed, refuses to answer basic questions about its mistreatment of donors.
Let’s talk about what WinRed will not tell you.
WinRed has opposed efforts to strengthen the laws around campaign donations, fought to weaken existing federal transparency regulations, and continuously fails to match ActBlue’s high compliance standards.
WinRed doesn’t disclose how it vets donations and does not have an explicit policy concerning how it prevents foreign campaign contributions.
Most glaring, WinRed — and Republican candidates up and down the ballot — have systematically used pre-checked recurring donation boxes without prior authorization from donors, taking money from unwitting seniors and other vulnerable donors. The result: WinRed received nearly seven times more fraud complaints to the FTC than ActBlue, despite processing roughly half the number of ActBlue’s contributions. WinRed’s refund rate is nearly double ActBlue’s.
When WinRed issues a refund, it keeps a 3.94% processing fee out of the donor’s pocket, apparently even when the donation was made by mistake or under fraudulent circumstances. Donors only have 60 days to request a refund for a mistaken gift, and after that window closes, WinRed has refused to budge, even in documented cases involving seniors with dementia. WinRed provides no publicly available guidance for caregivers or family members with power of attorney who are trying to recover funds on behalf of a vulnerable loved one.
President Trump’s own campaigns have taken 1,600 contributions from donors who live abroad, have close ties to foreign interests or failed to disclose basic information, making it impossible to identify them or verify the legality of the donation.
ActBlue has processed more than $19 billion in contributions since its founding in 2004, the overwhelming majority from small-dollar donors giving to candidates and causes they believe in. In the 2023-2024 cycle alone, ActBlue processed more than $3.5 billion, with an average contribution of just $44. It holds Level 1 PCI DSS certification, the highest security standard available for payment processors, and it returns the full contribution amount, including processing fees, on every refund.
So while Republicans take issue with the ActBlue CEO’s decision to exercise a constitutional right, they owe the public an explanation for why WinRed has stayed silent on its predatory practices that value profits over the well-being of its donors and transparency with the public.
This investigation is not about donor protection. The numbers make that plain. ActBlue has a 21-year+ record of powering small-dollar democracy with transparency and accountability. That record stands on its own.
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ActBlue is a safe and secure fundraising platform that enables millions of Americans to participate at a grassroots level in the most fundamental pillar of our society: elections. For 21 years, we’ve been a vital part of the infrastructure of our democracy.
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