Arizona's local races are getting an extra focus this year as both parties fight for control of not only the White House, but the state legislature.
To fund their fight, some groups are trying new approaches to get dollars into the right hands.
"There's a lot of momentum being built behind getting involved at a more local level," said political and tech strategist Brian Derrick. "Because we know that these are the offices making key decisions about the issues that impact our lives the most day to day."
Derrick is the founder of the fundraising platform Oath, which aims to funnel donations to lesser-known Democratic candidates, with the goal of making a major difference through small-scale, precise investments.
"We wanted to build a platform that would democratize that information in the donor advising space, so that someone giving $50 has the same information and the same strategy behind that donation as someone who might have a whole staff of political advisors, because they're giving millions of dollars," Derrick said.
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Nationally, there's been no shortage of donations through a variety of platforms in an exceptionally historic election year. Since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race last month, her campaign has pulled in a total of $540 million. Comparatively, former President Donald Trump has around $327 million in his war chest, as of this month.
Oath allows donors to pinpoint the causes they care most about, filtering candidates through issues like "tipping point state legislature," "defeat Trump," "protecting democracy," and specific policy focuses such as "mental health," "climate change," "gun safety," and "reproductive rights."
The platform also analyses and attempts to quantify the impact of each candidate's victory, through "impact scores" assigned to each person.
Republicans have taken a different approach, focusing on large investors to rake in money for their causes and candidates.
"Groups like Turning Point look to, you know, people who can spend $5 million, $10 million," explained Arizona-based Republican consultant Barrett Marson. "Groups like that aren't worried about the $20 donations."
Turning Point, based in Arizona, has been a force for organizing Republicans this election season, with its political advocacy arm most recently hosting Trump at an arena-packing rally in Glendale on Friday.
While Republicans are courting those willing to donate millions, it doesn't mean they've ignored small donors entirely. But Marson says those efforts have not had the same traction in conservative circles as they have in Democratic ones.
"Someone like [former Maricopa Co. Sheriff] Joe Arpaio was famous for getting buckets full of envelopes from the post office everyday of small-dollar donors," Marson recalled. However, he added, "those small-dollar donors are sort of drying up for everyone except Donald Trump" in today's Republican Party.
Still, Marson clarified, that doesn't mean local Republicans will have a shortage of momentum in the lead-up to November.
Arizona is a major focus of Oath's fundraising, with Congressional and Statehouse candidates from the Grand Canyon State featuring prominently on the site.
One candidate who has seen a boost from Oath is State Senate candidate John McLean, who has received over 800 new individual donors through Oath alone, the company says. McLean is running in Legislative District 17, which encompasses an area surrounding the north, east, and northwest communities around Tucson. It's one of only a handful of districts projected to be key in flipping the Arizona Senate blue for the first time in decades.
"Oath donors have given hundreds - almost a thousand in some cases - donations to those races, constituting up to 40% of the total funds donated [for some candidates]," Derrick said.
There's currently no publicly available equivalent to Oath for voters with more conservative views, something progressives like Derrick are counting on to be key in winning Democratic seats this year.
