Poor woman listed as a major donor through Act Blue

88-Year-Old Widow in Trailer Listed as $150K ActBlue Donor to Dems

An 88-year-old widow in rural Michigan says she was shocked to learn that federal campaign finance records list her as a major donor to Democratic causes through ActBlue.

The woman, Elizabeth Waffle, lives in a trailer and says she does not have anything close to the money reflected in the records. According to reporting highlighted by journalist Charlie LeDuff, Federal Election Commission filings attribute 14,696 separate donations to her name over the past five years. The total is nearly $150,000.

That works out to roughly eight donations per day, every day, for five years.

Waffle told LeDuff she has made some small political donations before. She described herself as a “true believer” in liberal causes and acknowledged giving some money to Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. But she said the scale of the donations tied to her name does not make sense.

When shown the records, Waffle pushed back hard. “One hundred and fifty thousand?… Hell no. I don’t have that kind of money. This is very abnormal.”