For years, Anna Cypert responded to the daily texts, calls and letters that she received from Democrats asking for money, often marked URGENT or SOS. The former nurse sent what she could: $5 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee or $25 to Joe Biden, adding up to more than 750 individual donations over the last decade. Last August, she stopped.
Cypert told NOTUS that she cut back on donating to campaigns due to the high cost of living, especially as a retiree on Social Security, though her political views have stayed the same. Across the country, other donors are similarly refusing to pull out their credit cards this cycle in what started as a subtle decline of small-dollar political giving but is rapidly becoming a major problem for campaigns.
“I don’t have very much money,” said Cypert, who is 83 and lives near her daughter in Minnesota. “I was very generous when I was working. I love Joe Biden, and I’m voting for him.”