In 2003, Democratic Presidential hopeful Howard Dean raised more than $20 million online and showed the fundraising power of the Internet and reinvented campaign fundraising, shifting it from a few big donors to countless small donors. These new and important Internet strategies were then adopted in the John Kerry and George W. Bush’s campaigns, along with the political parities, and candidates on the state and local level.
Seeing the success of Dean in online fundraising, the Kerry campaign used similar fundraising strategies and raked in nearly $82 million in online contributions. The Bush campaign mainly used their website organize and communicate with supporters and collected around $14 million
online. With the success of Kerry’s online fundraising efforts, Kerry was able to compete with Bush financially and level the playing field in terms of donations.
While the Bush campaign raised a record-breaking $260 million, the Kerry campaign was not so far behind with $248 million thanks to all of the Internet donations.