September 12, 2016

In the Presidential Race, Nothing Much Has Changed in the Past Year

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Just a quick note for everyone disturbed by basically everything that’s happened over the past month or so. It’s true that the polls have tightened a bit, but that’s not the real story. Here’s the latest from Pollster:

The real story is that we’ve had a Republican convention, a Democratic convention, and tons of news about email, foundations, pneumonia, Russia, bribery attempts, and more—and we’re pretty much at the same place we were three months ago. On June 1st, Clinton led by 5.5 points. Today she leads by 4.9 points.

Obviously this could change, and neither side can afford complacency. But the big picture is pretty simple: Trump has been stuck at a maximum of 40-42 percent for the entire past year. It appears that there’s a limit to how much support you can gin up with nothing but bluster and appeals to white resentment.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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