And Now for Something Completely Different...
There's two things I'm mainly known for: Healthcare policy wonkery, and this...
I’ve been debating whether or not to post about my Democratic candidate fundraising project, Blue26.org, since I joined Substack last fall.
It’s not because my focus is on healthcare policy—after all, I have posted about other topics a handful of times before (especially the disturbing but important 10-part Republican Rape Advisory Chart series, as well as one blasting Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner over his “How Was I Supposed to Know?” gaslighting nonsense.
The reason I’ve held off is mainly because I don’t want my subscribers to think that I’m going to start adding to the deluge of fundraising spam that they (along with I) are inundated with on a daily basis.
I cross-post the fundraising links pretty much exclusively on social media platforms including Bluesky, Twitter/X, Threads, Mastodon & Substack (as well as Daily Kos).
However, given how much of my time & effort goes into this project, I do think it’s OK to at least let my subscribers HERE know about it, thus this post.
With that in mind:
Blue26.org is NOT a PAC. In fact, it’s not an organization of any sort. It’s just a website I set up as an archive of links to fundraising pages to make it easy for people to donate directly to multiple Democratic candidates at once.
I started dabbling in Dem fundraising during the 2018 midterm cycle, hoping to raise perhaps $100,000 for the full cycle…instead I raised over double that. In 2020, I expanded my efforts and hoped to raise at least $250,000…and ended up raising a whopping $6 MILLION for hundreds of candidates.
I raised about $1.3 million during the 2022 cycle (midterms vs. POTUS)…and then, in 2024, I ended up raising a stunning $13.5 MILLION ($9.5 million of which was for VP Harris; the other $4.0M was spread across 700+ candidates for House, Senate, State Legislature, Governors, Attorneys General, etc.)
It’s important to reiterate that aside from this post, I’ve never sent a single fundraising email or text, and never will (OK, I might send out a monthly report on how the project is going if the feedback from this post is positive, but that’s not quite the same thing).
I should also note that unlike donations to PACs, not a dime of what’s donated via my pages goes to anyone other than the actual campaigns you choose to donate to (other than the standard 4% credit card processing fee). Nothing goes to “consultants.” Nothing goes to “data brokers.” Nothing even goes to me.
I should also note that my fundraising pages include a tool which lets you opt out of sharing your phone number & email address with the campaigns (in fact, the phone number field is optional anyway). A pop-up window letting you opt out appears during the checkout process.
Since we’re into another midterm cycle this time, I’m hoping to break $3.0 million by November…and I’m stepping things up another notch with a much heavier focus on state legislative races, for several reasons:
For one thing, the highest-profile Senate/House candidates aren’t gonna have any problems raising gobs of money. I’m still raising money for them myself, mind you, but my efforts will be a drop in the bucket in most cases.
By contrast, state legislative races tend to be far less expensive to run (often only costing in the low six figures and sometimes in the low five figures), which means that as little as a few hundred dollars can be as effective in helping them as raising a few hundred thousand in a federal race.
Blue26.org has links to multiple ActBlue fundraising pages where you can donate to Democrats running for:
That’s it. Seriously. All donations go directly to the campaign funds & organizations listed.
I don’t receive a dime unless you choose to throw a tip my way AFTER you complete your donation to the candidates.
FWIW, here’s how this project has broken out so far this cycle:
Total Raised thru April 2026: $753,699
U.S. Senate: $70,557
U.S. House: $156,364
State Legislative: $376,816
State Executives*: $32,816
State Courts: $47,841
State Dem Parties: $66,174
Local/Other: $3,131
You and other readers have probably noticed, but in-case not, there is a big NY Times article today entitled:
"Since Congress Let Obamacare Subsidies Expire, Millions Are Dropping Coverage"
( https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/business/obamacare-enrollment-decline.html ) whose title, and details, read as though the whole thing was taken from the last few weeks of your prior posts. (Georgia, Wakely, KFF survey, and more.)
(I am sure you are glad for the wider coverage, as not everyone finds it as pleasurable as your readers do to navigate your detailed tables.)
The Times also has some focus on that over-the-400%-of-FPL-returned subsidy cliff, though in the text of the article, it has been simplified to "people with middle class incomes".
(But, in a comment, reporter Margot Sanger-Katz uses the term "subsidy cliff"! https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/business/obamacare-enrollment-decline.html#permid=150801030 )
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Myself, I find interesting your, and my, observation that about 1/4 or the people who entered incomes on the exchange in 2025 that would be over the cliff this year, entered themselves as just under the cliff this year. (Either legitimately, or, some others, if they wind up having 2026 incomes that are over the cliff on the federal tax form filed in early 2027, will have to pay back all of that up to tens of thousands of dollars, which I'll bet many don't know.)
(Finding that little tidbit about the apparent downshifting of reported income so interesting, I couldn't help but chime that info in in my own fairly-unnoticed comment: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/business/obamacare-enrollment-decline.html#permid=150801077 !)
Charles, you're the best!.