Questionable ActBlue Contributions Observed In Tennessee’s Largest 15 Cities During 2022

Image Credit: Marco Verch / CC & Google Maps

Submitted By Author Tina Tobin and Contributor Laura Baigert –

A review of ActBlue filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for contributions made during 2022 reveal questionable patterns in Tennessee’s 15 largest cities by population.

Reporting information available on the FEC website reveals that some individual Tennesseans contributed to ActBlue hundreds and even as many as thousands of times, often several times in a single day. Average contribution amounts are very low, often in the single digits, but can add up to a total in the tens of thousands of dollars. 

Spring Hill was the only one of Tennessee’s 15 largest cities, which also represents a good geographical sampling, that did not have multiple people with questionable ActBlue contributions made in their name.

ActBlue is a non-profit fundraising platform for small-dollar donors that is available to Democratic and progressive candidates, political action committees and organizations. ActBlue touts on its website that 14,144,377 Democratic donors have saved their payment information with the organization through an ActBlue Express account. A rolling counter shows that over $12.2 billion has been collected through ActBlue’s online system since it was established in 2004.

According to the Federal Election Campaign Act and Federal Election Commission regulations, ActBlue is considered an intermediary or conduit for earmarked contributions to political candidates. As such, contributions for federal elections are counted against the contributor’s limits for the recipient candidate and, significantly, information must be disclosed about the earmarked contribution regardless of the amount.

Disclosures from the conduit ActBlue relative to campaigns for federal office must include the name, mailing address, occupation and employer of the contributor as well as the contribution amount for every contribution coming through the platform, regardless of dollar amount.

That means there is a lot of information publicly available on the FEC website for those who are interested and take the time to review.

In searching the FEC database for contributions to ActBlue from Tennesseans in the state’s 15 largest cities, the results were similar to those revealed earlier this year by James O’Keefe of the O’Keefe Media Group (OMG). 

OMG’s reporting came out of research by a Maryland group going under the name of Election Watch. The group found through ActBlue’s FEC filings that everyday citizens made dozens, hundreds or even thousands of individual contributions that ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per contributor. 

As O’Keefe reported, the contribution patterns would have required the individual contributors to have made numerous contributions every single day. 

A search of the FEC website was conducted of Tennessee’s 15 largest cities for a questionable number of contributions made between January 1, 2021, and December 25, 2022. 

One such search result was an unemployed 72-year-old Murfreesboro resident who reportedly made more than 4,400 contributions. A staggering 3,850 were made during only the 2022 calendar year.

The contribution amounts were small, ranging from $1 to $105 and averaging $5.75, but totaled just over $25,000.

Another significant finding is the number of contributions per day that the Murfreesboro resident reportedly made. In calendar year 2021, the contributor only missed making a contribution a few days each month, and on most days more than one contribution was made except for the month of December 2021 when no contributions were reported.

And while calendar 2022 got off to a slow start with a total of only four contributions during January and February, the number jumped up rapidly as the year progressed. That is, until the end of November 2022, when the frequency dropped off dramatically in terms of both the contributions per day and the number of days contributions were made.

Between August and November, however, the number of contributions per day went up and down from day to day. The high mark continued to increase every few days reaching a maximum of 112 contributions on November 1, 2022, or an inconceivable 4.6 per hour on that single day.

In the case of another not employed, 75-year-old resident of Gallatin, over 4,000 contributions were made in his name between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022. The highest value contribution was $250, although it doesn’t appear to have been designated for a candidate for federal office. The lowest contribution value was $1, with all contributions by this individual totaling just over $34,000. Notably, FEC records indicate that the amount of $1 was contributed in 835 separate transactions by this one contributor.

Although this Gallatin resident spent so much time and money making contributions for Democrats through ActBlue, remarkably, he was not engaged enough to even vote in the 2022 primary or general elections. 

While Sumner County is predominantly Republican, there were competitive Democrat primaries in August. Additionally, there were Democrats on the ballot in the November general election for Governor, U.S. House and Tennessee House of Representatives as well as judicial retention elections and four constitutional amendments that this committed Democrat contributor did not bother to participate in.

In addition to the strange contribution patterns common to the more than 100 donors who fit the initial search criteria, there were other eyebrow-raising observations. 

For example, contributor names were misspelled. While some could be attributed to typographical errors or nicknames, one specific example is that an ActBlue contributor using the same street address was listed as both Carl and Karl.

As another example, non-existent street addresses were sometimes used. Specifically, in the case of the Murfreesboro contributor previously discussed, his address was listed as both 2210 and 3310 with 3310 not being a valid number on his street.

These errors, whether typographical or not, also make it more challenging to search and or group contributions together to get a complete picture of the total number or aggregate dollar amount of the contributions. It also makes it likely that there are more questionable contributions than those observed thus far.

Since a date of birth is not required in ActBlue’s reporting to the FEC, one must rely on internet searches in order to determine the age of the contributors.

It appears that the majority of contributors from Tennessee’s 15 largest cities are above retirement age, with most being in their 70’s, 80’s or even 90s with an average age in the mid-70s.

The concern is that the elderly are being targeted and would be the least likely to realize that their names are being used fraudulently.

There are other causes for concern relative to ActBlue.

In 2019, Fox News reported exclusively that analysis by Take Back Action Fund found that 48.4 percent of contributions to ActBlue in that year were made by people reporting they were unemployed. Meanwhile, the Republican alternative, WinRed, data showed that just 4 percent were unemployed. 

Action Fund’s President John Pudner said that the high number of ActBlue contributors being unemployed is a red flag that some may be illicit foreign contributions.

Additionally, through a subsequent video, O’Keefe indicated that Election Watch would be filing a complaint with the FEC and then a lawsuit in the Northern District of Virginia along with evidence that over 60 percent of the money is coming from China. 

Anyone in Tennessee interested in reviewing FEC data to determine if they or someone they know has been recorded as contributing to ActBlue during calendar 2022 can click on this link. The search criteria has been pre-set to display the list of contributors. 

Clicking on the contributor’s name or the arrow on the far right will provide further details such as the contributor’s city which will assist in confirming the individual.

Search criteria can also be reset, and new criteria entered to get more specific information on a contributor, address or to search for contributions during other time periods.

The goal is to make Tennesseans aware and take action, if necessary, to protect their personal information. 

If a Tennessean needs assistance in conducting research about their own contributions, or have found evidence of misuse of their information for campaign contributions and wish to file a complaint with the FEC, they are encouraged to do so at https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/enforcement/complaints-process/

If a Tennessean needs assistance with using the FEC site or have some other questions, contact TNLibertyNetworkTina@protonmail.com