The problem is that for the entire fourth quarter of 2025, she raised just $822,000 in small contributions. That would mean that, after raising more than a half million in one day from regular people, she raised just $287,000 more over the next two and a half months. As a candidate, some drop off after launch day is expected, but to drop that far and that fast raises major concerns about how much momentum there is behind her bid, especially considering that the Democratic Party in Washington has turned on its small-dollar fundraising program for Mills. The party has carpet-bombed inboxes on her behalf, but people seem not to be responding.
The Mills campaign did not respond when asked to clarify these day-one fundraising issues.
The opposite is true for grassroots campaigns. They take far longer to get going, but they’re able to get a kind of flywheel of donations and volunteerism that overwhelms corporate campaigns, in enough time.
See: Graham Platner