When measuring the effectiveness of a politician, the simplest and most cynical metric is simply to look up how much money they've been able to shake out of donors' pockets. Some members of Congress see fundraising as a necessary evil, some seem to savor it, but all of them engage in it, and tracking those who do it well is (for better or worse) a rough barometer of who the most powerful and prominent representatives are.
Below is a list of the Democrats in Congress who have raised the most money in the 2020 cycle, all compiled from Open Secrets' excellent data, which is current as of October. This excludes representatives who ran for Senate so as to keep the focus on the House (in general, senators raise more money than representatives).
Nancy Pelosi (CA-12)
The two-time House speaker gets a lot of deserved praise for her acumen as a legislative leader (the Affordable Care Act passed in no small thanks to her vote-wrangling), but she's also the House's top Democratic fundraiser. In pre-pandemic 2019, she held 181 fundraising events in 54 cities and raised a record $87 million for Democrats, most of which went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Her status as a party leader means she often headlines events that raise money for a variety of PACs. She still finds time to raise for her own campaign and leadership PAC, bringing in $21 million to her personal coffers in 2020. Her San Francisco district is safer than safe, so much of that cash flows out to other Democrats—she contributed $1.7 million to the DCCC and $1.1 million to other party members, more than any other Democrat save House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD-5). The digital agency Sapphire Strategies, which is staffed by DCCC vets, got $7.8 million combined from Pelosi's campaign and leadership PAC, by far the largest recipient of her funds.
Pelosi's donors are the typical people who give to Democrats: employees of law firms, tech companies, and the University of California system make up a substantial chunk. What distinguishes Pelosi donors, in particular, is that many of them give large amounts—nearly 700 gave over $2,700 in 2020, and 359 gave over $5,400. That certainly makes it easier to rake in the millions.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14)
Early last year, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had one of her regularly scheduled viral moments when she denounced the practice of "call time," in which members of Congress spend hours fundraising; this was a drain on legislators, she suggested, and an inevitable consequence of a fundamentally corrupt political system that relies too much on big donors.
All that may be true, but it's also true that New York's most famous member of Congress doesn't have to worry too much about fundraising because her huge national following sends her truckloads of small donations. Seventy-eight percent of AOC’s massive $18 million 2020 campaign and leadership PAC haul came from under-$200 donors; notably, she got more from California residents than residents of her home state—just 16 percent of her donations came from New York. That's what happens when you have a base that extends beyond your own constituents (some would say it's a fandom).
Where does that money go? A stunning $4.8 million went to Facebook ads alone, as she used a digital-first strategy to crush a primary challenge, probably spending much more than she needed to in the process. After the election, she criticized other House Democrats for not spending enough on digital, suggesting that her disagreements with her fellow party members are tactical as well as ideological.
Adam Schiff (CA-28)
Rep. Adam Schiff became the leading member of Congress for the MSNBC wing of the party during the protracted Russia scandal and impeachment proceedings thanks to his role as chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Before 2018, he hadn't been a particularly notable fundraiser, but he brought in nearly $7 million in the 2018 cycle and raised $2.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, such a huge haul for a representative that there's been speculation of a Senate run.
A sizable chunk, though not a majority, of his $20 million in contributions in the 2020 cycle come from California (one exception: Northlane Capital Partners, a D.C.-area private equity firm that was his leadership PAC's second-highest donor, according to Open Secrets). He funneled nearly $1 million of that to the DCCC and donated $987,000 to other Democrats. That's the profile of someone who is climbing higher on the ladder of House leadership, if not aiming for the Senate.
Katie Porter (CA-45)
That this list is dominated by California Democrats shows that's where a great deal of the money and excitement in the party is coming from right now. Porter is in a slightly different position than the three names above her. The Sen. Elizabeth Warren disciple is quite liberal when compared to her Orange County district, and won her 2018 race by just 12,000 votes. Pelosi and Schiff can hang onto their districts even without huge piles of cash, but Porter needs her money. She raised so much in the 2020 cycle that it scared off the GOP, but she'll likely face fierce competition in the 2022 midterms.
One thing she's got going for her is a knack for going viral by skewering bankers and others in committee hearings, which has given her a national profile. But most of her money comes from California, and she gets more in large ($2,700-plus) donations than she does in small ($200-$499) donations. She's not an AOC-style small-donor juggernaut, in other words. But the fact that she's raised $15 million in the 2020 cycle—and won reelection handily—shows that she's going to be difficult for Republicans to dislodge.
Elissa Slotkin (MI-8)
Rep. Elissa Slotkin is the third name on this list (with AOC and Porter) to come from the congressional class of 2018, showing the influence—and name recognition—of the next generation of Democrats. The former CIA analyst is among the group dubbed "national security Democrats," relatively moderate members of Congress who have come to prominence attacking Trump as a danger to the nation. In early 2020, Pelosi made Slotkin the leader of the Democrats' response to Donald Trump's dangerous Iran strategy, and Slotkin has continued to attack the president on foreign policy and national security issues—which is a risk, given that her district went for Trump in 2016, and she just barely took the seat in 2018.
Slotkin's $8.4 million 2020 haul, built out of large donors, many of them from California and New York, meant that she took a big fundraising lead over her opponent, Paul Lunge.
Money alone didn't guarantee her a win—Max Rose (NY-11), another moderate Democrat in a swing district, raised just as much as Slotkin and lost badly in what turned out to be a bad cycle to be an at-risk House Democrat. The best way to keep racking up big fundraising totals is to stay in office.
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