Luján’s fundraising panic gets weird fast

U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján’s campaign appears to be in full-blown manufactured fundraising panic mode, sending a barrage of increasingly dramatic emails warning supporters that Democrats could “throw in the towel,” “kiss their chances” of taking the Senate goodbye, and even claiming survey data could become “invalid” if recipients do not respond fast enough.

The string of emails, sent over several days around the campaign’s end-of-month fundraising deadline, shows just how frantic Democrat campaign messaging has become as Luján seeks reelection and national Democrats look for a path back to the Senate majority.

The pleas began with the usual manufactured urgency, but quickly veered into absurd territory.

On July 28, Luján’s campaign sent an “URGENT DEMOCRATIC POLLING” email asking the supposedly critical political question: “DO YOU RECYCLE?”

The email appeared falsely personalized to the recipient, claiming the person had been selected for a local recycling survey and was “representing” Santa Fe Democrats. It said the campaign was reaching out because of “concerning data in Santa Fe regarding low recycling rates.”

“We’re in the midst of a MASSIVE environmental crisis,” the email warned, adding that the campaign still needed “[331] responses to reach statistical significance.”

Two days later, the same recycling-themed email appeared again, with the same “DO YOU RECYCLE?” question and the same claim that 331 responses were needed.

By July 29, the tone had shifted from recycling panic to Senate doom.

“I don’t know what to say,” one email began.

“We’re 2 DAYS away from our end-of-month fundraising deadline. If we don’t hit our goal, we won’t be able to flip the Senate blue. We won’t be able to fight Trump’s agenda,” the email warned.

Then came the highlighted line: “But no one — I mean no one — has donated.”

The campaign claimed “our future is on the line,” along with “the fate of Social Security and Medicare” and even “gas prices.” The email then asked whether the recipient had “anything to spare to help STOP Trump,” warning that Democrats had “only 24 hours left” — despite the same email saying the deadline was two days away.

On July 30, Luján’s campaign claimed it was still “[447] donations short” of its goal.

“If I don’t hit my end-of-month goal, Democrats can kiss their chances at retaking the Senate goodbye,” the email stated. It claimed “the GOP is SWARMING New Mexico” and warned, “If Democrats don’t take back the Senate, MAGA wins.”

The campaign then escalated further: “And if MAGA wins, Trump gets to bulldoze his agenda through Congress. The future of Social Security, Medicare, and gas prices will all be uncertain.”

But perhaps the most bizarre emails involved MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) host Rachel Maddow.

On July 30, Luján’s campaign sent an email with the subject line “GOODBYE, RACHEL MADDOW.” The email claimed, “Trump managed to get Stephen Colbert fired. And now, he’s calling for MSNBC to FIRE Rachel Maddow!” The email couldn’t even get Maddow’s network name correct.

The campaign said it had launched an “URGENT Viewership Poll” to “PROVE massive grassroots support for Rachel Maddow” and demanded the recipient submit a response “in the next 30 minutes.”

A follow-up email the next day, titled “FWD: Rachel Maddow FIRED?!” said the campaign was “RACING to prove that top Democrats support Rachel Maddow” and needed a “98% response rate.”

The campaign warned that Maddow had “courageously EXPOSED Trump and MAGA’s corruption time after time” and that Trump would “LOVE to say goodbye to brave journalists like Rachel Maddow who speak truth to power.”

By July 31, deadline-day panic reached its peak.

“This is the final time we’ll ask you to donate $9 to help RE-ELECT Ben Ray Luján,” the email began, before admitting, “As of this morning, we’re still DANGEROUSLY short of our goal.”

The campaign warned that if Democrats “lose here it’s OVER” and said it had emailed supporters “over and over” because “if things don’t turn around, we’ll have to pack our bags and throw in the towel.”

Then came the “Harsh Reality” section, claiming “The GOP is swarming New Mexico” and that “Donald Trump is trying to RIG elections after his administration FAILED the American people.”

The same email claimed that if the campaign raised “20,000 Senate Memberships” before midnight, Democrats could “END Trump’s razor-thin Senate Majority.” If they succeeded, it declared, “the rest of his corrupt presidency is TOAST!”

The deadline apparently did not end the begging.

On Aug. 1, Luján’s campaign sent another email “humbly asking” for support, claiming there were “less than 4 months until one of the biggest elections of our lifetimes” and saying it needed 2,000 supporters before a new deadline “TONIGHT.”

That same day, another falsely personalized email claimed the campaign had “some concern that many Democrats may have switched parties since the last election.” It asked the recipient to confirm whether they were still a Democrat or “now a Republican,” saying it needed “10 local responses” for its data to be valid.

By Sunday morning, the panic returned to Social Security.

An Aug. 2 email with the subject line “[gutted] what Trump did to Social Security” claimed Democrats were fighting “tooth and nail to SAVE Social Security from Trump’s cuts,” but warned, “the worst has happened.”

It then told the recipient that the survey “needs to begin within 5 minutes of opening this email” or “our data from your state will be INVALID.”

Taken together, the emails show a campaign relying on a steady diet of panic, guilt, fake deadlines, falsely personalized “polls,” and apocalyptic Trump warnings to shake loose cash and clicks.

Whether the campaign actually missed its July deadline is unclear from the emails alone. But the fact that the pleas continued after the deadline — with new urgent demands, new polls, and new warnings — suggests Luján’s campaign was not exactly projecting confidence.

For a longtime incumbent Democrat in New Mexico, the message to supporters was unmistakable: panic now, donate fast, or Rachel Maddow, Social Security, gas prices, recycling, and the entire Senate may apparently be doomed.

However, the panic about supposed failures to meet fundraising goals is completely false, as the last FEC filing at the end of June shows $4,396,754.26 cash on hand for Lujan, with disbursements from the campaign since last year of $2,443,667.94 — hardly a place to “panic.” Republican Larry Marker is the GOP name to take on Lujan.