An 88-Year-Old Widow Has No Power Or Internet In Her Trailer — Yet Federal Records Show 562 ActBlue Donations

According to Breitbart, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff reported that federal filings tied retiree Elizabeth Waffle of Milan, Michigan, to nearly $4,500 in fresh ActBlue contributions over a six-week span, including four donations recorded on a day when she had no internet access. LeDuff found that 562 separate transactions were attributed to Waffle during that brief period, with four of them, totaling $22, posting on the very day he first visited her trailer, where the electricity, running water, and internet were all shut off.

During that initial visit, LeDuff and Waffle attempted to make an online contribution together and were unable to connect to the internet, underscoring the implausibility of the official records. “Last time we were here, remember, we tried to make a donation,” LeDuff said, recounting the exchange in a follow-up interview.

Among the new transactions was a $51 donation logged for Abdul El-Sayed, whom LeDuff described as “the king of the Michigan micro-donors.” El-Sayed narrowly captured the Democrat Senate primary in August by less than a percentage point and now faces republican Mike Rogers in November, in a race many analysts consider a potential tipping point for control of the Senate.

Waffle, who lost her home to a fire two years ago and has been living in the trailer ever since, told LeDuff the reported figures made no sense to her. Earlier federal filings reviewed in July had already attributed 14,696 donations to her over five years — roughly eight per day — a volume LeDuff estimated at more than $130,000.

When the reporter returned last week with printed records of the transactions, the widow’s patience snapped, and she challenged his motives, asking whether he was assembling a hit piece on ActBlue. “I think it’s a bunch of hogwash,” Waffle said.

She went on to suggest that republicans cheat as well and agreed when LeDuff asked if her attitude was to “fight fire with fire.” Then her tone shifted, revealing a more traditional moral instinct.

“I believe in honesty,” she said. “I do care if somebody is fudging and putting stuff in.”

Pressed on whether she wanted LeDuff to continue digging into the matter, Waffle consented. “Yeah, if they are,” she said.

Not every outside review aligns with the most alarming tallies circulating online, including those from the anonymous “Michigan Enjoyer” account that helped spotlight the case. The Center Square reported that FEC data show $100,295 in contributions tied to Waffle’s name across three election cycles and noted that ActBlue’s Tandem Fundraising tool can split a single donation form among numerous campaigns, creating multiple logged transactions from one actual gift.

The controversy comes amid months of heightened federal scrutiny of the Democrat fundraising giant, which has long been a financial engine for progressive candidates and causes. ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment rights before the House Administration Committee this year, while President Donald Trump directed the Justice Department in April 2025 to investigate whether online fundraising platforms had processed illegal or improper contributions, a move welcomed by conservatives who have long warned that opaque digital systems are ripe for abuse.