- Democrats have raised more than $45 million since Friday night following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, The New York Times reported Saturday.
- According to the report, the fundraising platform ActBlue broke its all-time record for donations in a single hour two times Friday in the hours immediately following the announcement of her death.
- In the 9 p.m. hour, ActBlue candidates and causes raised some $6.2 million, and in the 10 p.m. hour, it raised $6.3 million, The New York Times reported.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue scored a record number of donations received in a single hour two times on Friday, following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
According to a report from The New York Times, from 9 p.m. until 10 p.m. on Friday, ActBlue pulled in some $6.2 million in donations — the most it has raised in a single hour since the platform launched in 2004, according to the report.
Then, from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., ActBlue surpassed the record again, bringing in $6.3 million in donations.
As NPR reported, in the 12 hours from 9 p.m. on Friday until 9 a.m. on Saturday, ActBlue raised more than $31 million. The New York Times reported that by noon Saturday, donations to ActBlue campaigns had passed $45 million since the time that Ginsburg’s death was announced by the Supreme Court.
Ginsburg died Friday at the age of 87 due to complications stemming from metastatic pancreatic cancer. She spent the last 27 years of her life on the Supreme Court.
As The Times noted, ActBlue does not clearly specify the allocation of the donated funds as indicated by the ticker on its homepage. A spokesperson for ActBlue on Saturday confirmed to Business Insider the figures reported by NPR and The New York Times but said she was unable to share any more information about the funds at press time.
Ginsburg’s death has triggered a political firestorm, as Democrats and Republicans clash over whether President Donald Trump should appoint a successor and whether the GOP-controlled Senate should vote on his nomination.
In 2016, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow the Senate to debate or vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.
But on Friday, McConnell said the Senate would vote on a nominee put forth by President Trump. And on Saturday, the president tweeted that it was his “obligation” to name a new justice to the court, and he told reporters he intends to announce his pick next week and that it will “most likely” be a woman.
Democrats, meanwhile, have urged the Senate to wait until after the November election to vote to confirm a new justice, and at least two Republican senators previously suggested they would not vote to confirm a nominee until after the election. The GOP will need a simple majority to confirm a new justice and the party currently holds a majority with 53 seats.
NPR previously reported that Ginsburg’s ‘fervent’ last wish was that she ‘not be replaced until a new president is installed.’
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