Rage-Donating Only Made Democrats Feel Better

Amy McGrath, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky, never really stood a chance of beating Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, her party’s longtime nemesis. Throughout the race, she polled a distant 10 percentage points behind the incumbent. McGrath ended up losing by some 20 percentage points. But for many of the donors who poured a total of $88 million into her campaign, giving to McConnell’s opponent simply felt good—regardless of whether it was a productive use of money.

McGrath raised almost three-fifths of her funds from donors who each gave less than $200. Rich Democrats across the country also chipped in. In my home state of Massachusetts, more than 500 people gave $1,000 or more to McGrath’s campaign. The whose staff gave the most to McGrath’s campaign include the University of California system, Stanford, and Harvard, as well as the U.S. government, the state of California, and the city of New York.