Exclusive | Email spam filters cost GOP fundraisers estimated $117M in donations last year: bombshell study

Republican candidates lost out on an estimated $117 million in donations during two periods last year in which fundraising emails were being aggressively labeled spam by Google’s Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo, according to a bombshell study.The first period identified by researchers ran from June 30th, 2025, when GOP consulting firm Targeted Victory first alerted Google that WinRed fundraising emails were being labeled as spam, through Sept.15 of last year, when Google stopped using a popular spam “blacklist” that was improperly flagging emails, as The Post exclusively reported.The problem wasn’t just limited to Gmail, the study revealed.

Between those two dates, spam filtering tanked first-time donations on WinRed by a whopping 75% compared to normal levels across Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo.A review of inbox-placement data showed a similar trend that took place on Outlook only from February through April of last year, when first-time WinRed donations plunged 83% compared to normal levels due to spam filtering.Combined, the two periods in which WinRed fundraising emails weren’t hitting inboxes cost the GOP a total of 142,126 in expected first-time donations, the little-noticed study published on July 7 found. The researchers, Cameron Ellis of the University of Iowa and Lars Powell of the University of Alabama, estimated that those missing donations would have amounted to $117 million, based on a review of data from the Federal Election Commission.  The figure was significant when compared to reported fundraising totals by major Republican groups.The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) raked in a combined $377 million in 2025.The analysis could reignite long-running complaints by Republicans who have accused Google and other tech platforms of suppressing GOP fundraising efforts – while leaving similar ActBlue fundraising emails from Democrats unt...