WINONA, Minn. – A for-profit Republican fundraising operation known as WinRed has endorsed City Council member Aaron Repinski for Winona’s seat in the state Legislature. The endorsement appears in Repinski’s latest campaign site, which WinRed designed. This comes eight months before the Minnesota primary elections in which citizens vote to choose their party preference. Political parties traditionally refrain from endorsements until their membership makes a choice in the primaries. The idea is that each political party’s faithful make candidate choices — not the party bosses. In Repinski’s case, WinRed and the the national and state Republican party apparatus have short-circuited a second announced candidate for Winona’s District 26-A seat in the State House of Representatives. Like Repinski, Stephen Doerr has announced his 26-A candidacy. There also could be other candidates before the filing deadline. The window for filing begins May 21 and runs to June 4. With WinRed, Repinski stands exclusively to pick up campaign donations through the WinRed apparatus. On its website WinRed suggests donations of $25 to $2,000 — more if you like. WinRed takes a 4% commission before passing the remainder on to its candidates. Unless an opt-out box is checked on the donation site, further donations of the same amount are deducted monthly from the donor’s bank account or charged to the donio’s credit card that was used to begin with. A $25 donation becomes $200 by the primary in August and $300 by the general election in November. Critics call the WinRed practice of ongoing charges sleezy. Responding to angry contributors caught up in the scheme in the last election, WinRed agreed to refund ongoing donations upon request but keeps its 4% commission.
WinRed profile
WinRed is a for-profit fundraising platform built for the Republican Party It was used by the Trump presidential campaign in 2020, and still is, and nearly 800 other campaigns. WinRed took in $30 million in its first three months after launch, $100 million in its first six, and $130 million in the first quarter of 2020. Donald Trump was the largest beneficiary. Six senators raised $1 million-plus each. Many GOP officials, fundraisers, and campaign operatives criticized WinRed’s fees. Even so, bWinRed became a monopoly as competitors folded one by one under Trump pressure that favored WinRed. Part of the objection to WinRed was that any monopoly violatsd the Republican Party’s historic free-market principles. Also the critics saw WinRed as a money and data grab. Following the 2020 campaign, several Trump donors claimed to have been unknowingly billed for recurring contributions to his campaign, with some having as much as several thousand dollars deducted without their knowledge. Some experts attributed this, at least in part, to how WinRed had set up its platform. RedWin utilized prefilled checkboxes that donors needed to uncheck manually to prevent automatic repeat donations. Since 2022, several state attorneys general have been investigating WinRed’s fundraising practices. Among issues has been WinRed’s expense disclosures. WinRed reported only an implausible $2,700 in operating expenses during a period that it had $2.8 billion in donations.
Earlier: Murky GOP-linked mailer demonizes Pelowski
Earlier: Investigative reporting: Doerr in touch? Not?
Earlier: Doerr’s qualifications for office look muzzy
Earlier: Doerr again enters District 26-A House race
Earlier: Pelowski still aboard for House re-election bid
Earlier: Repinski says House bid will be as a Republican
Repinski. At-large City Council member since 2022. Now shooting for St. Paul.
Doerr. No WinRed funding for him. Failed in 2022 bid for House seat 26-A.
Ahead of the game. Unfair pre-empting the voice of GOP voters?
Incumbent
Gene Pelowski. a Democrat, was first elected to the Legislature from Winona in 1987.