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'Get Mitch or Die Trying' fund hits $8M mark hours after RBG's death: 'Democrats are pissed and coming for your job'

Created by Crooked Media, which donates to 13 close Senate races with the goal to flip the Republican-majority to Democratic-majority witnessed a huge jump in funding

The US is still in shock following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18. However, it seems politics and political campaigns and conversations never stop in the country. More so because the presidential election is inching closer.

Within hours of reports of Ginsburg’s death, the donation ticker on ActBlue, a nonprofit organization that enables left-leaning nonprofits, Democrats, and progressive groups to raise money online, shot up extensively, with about $100,000 in donations each minute, as per Fortune. A campaign, titled ‘Get Mitch or Die Trying’, created by Crooked Media, which donates to 13 close Senate races with the goal to flip the Congressional body from Republican-majority to Democratic-majority witnessed a huge jump in funding. The group reported at least $1.5 million in donations in the hour after Ginsburg's death was made public, as reported by Fortune.

Crooked Media was founded by Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor, all former top Barack Obama staffers. Vietor tweeted, “Hey reporters wondering if this SCOTUS news is motivating Democrats. Here is a chart of donations to our fund to help elect Democrats to the Senate. Donate (or watch the number go up) here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/getmitch.”

According to a 2019 The Hill report, in the campaign launch video, “You could have everything you’ve ever wanted if it wasn’t for this guy,” text pops up at the beginning. “Mitch McConnell — he’s just as bad as Trump but no one ever talks about it,” says Vietor.  In the video, they also say that “everything you hate about Washington is because this Mitch designed it that way," encouraging voters to show the door to GOP occupants and put the party in the Senate minority. “So when you’re voting against Susan Collins in Maine, you’re actually voting against this guy,” referring to McConnell. “Or when you’re voting against Cory Gardner in Colorado, you’re actually voting against ol’ resting Mitch face,” says the video.

The donation page states, the top Senate races where they believe donations can make the biggest difference and these are (in no particular order): Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, Montana, Iowa, Georgia (both seats!), Alabama, Michigan, Alaska, South Carolina, Texas and Kansas.

The page reads, “These are all subject to change as we get closer to the election, and we’ll let you know when they do! (For example, we just paused on Arizona because that state race is extremely well-funded at the moment.).” It further says, “This fund starts delivering donations directly to a candidate once the state has decided who its Democratic contender is. For example, when North Carolina Democrat Cal Cunningham won his Senate primary in March, this fund sent over $66,000 the next day. To date, you've donated $133,578 to Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, $148,712 to Jon Ossoff in Georgia, $53,179 to Steve Bullock in Montana, and $80,271 to Jamie Harrison in South Carolina. Now we’ll keep raising to help them all beat the GOP in November. We’ll also be working to hold on to Democratic Senate seats that are crucial to getting to a majority.” Their goal is $9,000,000 and at the time of publishing this article, they had crossed $8 million.

According to Fortune, the donations started pouring in as Senate Majority Leader McConnell said that he would attempt to replace Ginsburg with a Supreme Court Justice who was assessed and approved by President Donald Trump. “President Trump's nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate,” said McConnell in a statement Friday evening, as per Fortune.
 
Following Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia’s death in 2016, McConnell had refused to appoint then-president Barack Obama’s Justice pick, Merrick Garland, to the court, giving the reason that it was an election year and thus unfair.

“In the last midterm election before Justice Scalia’s death in 2016, Americans elected a Republican Senate majority because we pledged to check and balance the last days of a lame-duck president’s second term. We kept our promise,” McConnell said in his statement on September 18. “Since the 1880s, no Senate has confirmed an opposite-party president’s Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year.”

Following this, Twitter was buzzing regarding the news of the donation campaign by Crooked Media. Vietor tweeted, “The @crookedmedia Get Mitch fund, which splits your contribution between 13 Democrats running for Senate, has raised $2 million in less than two hours. That’s on top of $3.5MM before today. Democrats are pissed and coming for your job Mitch.” One user said, "I just donated to Get Mitch or Die Trying, via ActBlue & they split your donation across 10 critical Senate races this year. Here's their video explaining it all: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OR9JxPsF_CY&feature=emb_title. Do it for our future... DO IT FOR RBG!!” Another stated, “We need to Get Mitch or die trying. This is the last stand for our democracy.” One user urged others to donate and wrote: “Donated to the Get Mitch or Die Trying fund. I suggest everyone else does too if they want our democracy to survive.”  Krista Vernoff, showrunner of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ wrote: “In tribute to the extraordinary life of Justice Ginsberg, I’m matching donations to this fund up to $10,000 tonight. Please give what you can and post receipts here. This spreads your funds among all the races that we need to win. Not just Mitch.”