In the first 90 minutes after news of President Obama’s support of gay
marriage Wednesday, his campaign banked $1 million in spontaneous
contributions, according to BuzzFeed.
“This is beyond unifying — it’s electrifying,” said Eugene Sepulveda, a
former fundraiser for Obama who withdrew to take a non-political job early this
year. “This man stands for right, despite the political consequences.”
Jeff Soref, a longtime Democratic activist in the gay community, told
BuzzFeed: “I think the people who were disappointed by the president’s failure
to support marriage quality will now have that barrier removed for them.”
Indeed, top gay donors have been using their expensive access to bend
Obama’s ear on the issue for years. Some now feel that their specific pleas
have been answered.
“There have been a lot of us urging him to do this for a very long time. I
imagine he and Michele felt some pain for us after North Carolina yesterday,”
said another longtime gay Obama bundler. “There are more LGBT co-chairs across
the country are raising more money than we’ve ever raised. And you’ll see a lot
more of that now,” the bundler said.
Soref said that aside from energizing supporters, Obama’s decision sharpens
the choice for the general election.
“There is a contrast between the President and Mitt Romney, and this
clarified the contrast, and that will help with fundraising,” he said.
The Obama campaign sees the announcement and the contrast with Romney’s
position, as playing into the campaign’s narrative of Obama as the
forward-looking candidate and Romney as the one of the past.
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