CNN has done a deep dive into political fundraising tactics deployed by political parties to extract money from donors — and has found that Republican-aligned groups have been especially exploitative of elderly voters.
The key tool for soliciting funds by both parties has been text messages that target elderly donors.
However, CNN noted that "ultimately, some of these elderly, vulnerable consumers have unwittingly given away six-figure sums — most often to Republican candidates — making them among the country’s largest grassroots political donors."
As a case example, CNN pointed to an 80-year-old Texas voter who is suffering from dementia and who "began making online political donations over and over again — eventually telling his son he believed he was part of a network of political operatives communicating with key Republican leaders."
Over the span of just two years, wrote CNN, this man gave away "nearly half a million dollars to former President Donald Trump and other candidates." Now, the report stated, "the savings account he spent his whole life building is practically empty."
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If there is good news, it's that the man's son managed to get just over $150,000 of the money he donated to right-wing platform WinRed refunded, although that total represents just a fraction of the man's overall contributions.
The CNN report noted that while both Republicans and Democrats have used these kinds of tactics to extract money from elderly donors, the GOP has embraced such spam texts much more wholeheartedly.
"Mainstream Republican candidates have only doubled down on this strategy, using more aggressive and predatory tactics than those used by Democrats, according to donor complaints, interviews with experts and a review of solicitations," the report noted. "The Republican fundraising machine has been subject to more than 800 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission since 2022 — nearly seven times more than the number of complaints lodged against the other side."
