Bernie Sanders, AOC and other anti-Trump progressives haul in big bucks for 2026 midterms

It apparently pays to lead the resistance Progressive lawmakers in Congress who have been among the the bulk vocal in pushing back against President Donald Trump's aggressive and controversial second-term agenda are seeing a surge in fundraising Sen Bernie Sanders the longtime progressive champion hauled in million in the January-March first quarter of fundraising according to Federal Poll Commission filings this week The Vermont independent and two-time Democratic presidential primary runner-up also reports more than million in his campaign coffers at the start of this month WHAT BERNIE SANDERS STATED FOX NEWS ABOUT TRUMP MUSK AND DEMOCRATSSanders has been drawing tens of thousands of people to his Fighting Oligarchy rallies across the country over the past six weeks Co-headling those rallies is Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez another rock star on the political left The four-term Democrat from New York City raked in a massive million the past three months The record-breaking fundraising haul was one of the biggest ever for any House lawmaker BERNIE SANDERS AND AOC TAKE AIM AT TRUMP AND MUSK AS WELL AS DEMOCRATS AT WESTERN RALLIESOcasio-Cortez's band highlighted that the fundraising came from individual donors with an average contribution of just I cannot convey enough how grateful I am to the millions of people supporting us with your time materials potential Your endorsement has allowed us to rally people together at record scale to organize their communities Ocasio-Cortez emphasized in a social media post Another Democrat in Congress who has been very visible in leading the resistance to Trump is Sen Chris Murphy of Connecticut Murphy who won re-election last November and doesn't have to run again until hauled in million over the past three months his biggest quarterly fundraising ever The people are sending Democrats a message about the direction they would like to see top Sanders advisor Faiz Shakir declared in a social media post Longtime Democratic operative and strategist Joe Caiazzo a veteran of the Sanders and presidential campaigns explained Fox News that there's a direct correlation between fundraising and action this is an indication of the yearning for action over inaction that is what Democratic voters and Democratic activists want And Caiazzo warned that the stale tactics of Washington have been rejected by the voters and we need to understand that going into the next cycle HOUSE GOP TOUTS UNSTOPPABLE MOMENTUM AS IT SHOWCASES FUNDRAISINGWhile not bringing in similar eye-popping numbers House Republicans are touting their first-quarter fundraising as they prepare to defend their razor-thin majority in the chamber in next year's midterm elections Seven GOP lawmakers in competitive districts who are being targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee each raised seven figures over the past three months Leading the way was Rep Mike Lawler of the th Congressional District of New York who hauled in nearly million during the first quarter Lawler is mulling a statewide bid for New York governor in Also on the list are Reps Juan Ciscomani of Arizona's th District Young Kim and Ken Calvert of California's th and st Districts respectively Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa's st District Jen Kiggans of Virginia's nd District and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin's rd DistrictThe National Republican Congressional Committee NRCC highlighted that House GOP lawmakers in competitive districts enjoy a large fundraising advantage over Democrats in competitive seats And the NRCC emphasized that this is a huge difference from the first fundraising quarter during the poll cycle when the Democrats held a campaign cash advantage House Republicans aren't just winning the fundraising competition against vulnerable Democrats they're running laps around them NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella argued