Republicans banked on small-dollar donors for fundraising during former President Donald Trump‘s 2020 campaign, but with the 2024 election inching closer, those donors are not giving as much as they used to.

As the GOP continues to lag behind Democrats in overall fundraising figures, the number of small-dollar donors, who give donations of $200 or less, for the Trump campaign was down dramatically last year when compared to 2019. Several Republican operatives told the Washington Post that part of the reason for the lower returns is the bombardment of messages to small-dollar donors.

The report alleges that the significant number of messages, including emails and text messages, Trump’s campaign sent following the 2020 election caused an oversaturation and that the former president himself asked the messages be slowed down.

As Democrats have amassed megadonors and have staged several high-dollar fundraisers, including one last week in New York City alongside former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Republicans have trailed as Trump uses funds for legal fees and attempts to bring back GOP megadonors.

One Republican small-dollar fundraiser, John Hall, told the Washington Post that one of the reasons small-dollar donors are not giving as much is because Republicans “don’t treat donors well.”

“Sending eight emails and texts a day that promise an artificial match, threaten to take away your GOP membership, or call you a traitor if you don’t donate doesn’t build a long-term relationship with donors,” Hall said.

With the Biden campaign’s massive war chest, money could be a key advantage for Democrats in hard-fought battles for the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives in November. Republican strategist Karl Rove said on David Axelrod’s CNN podcast The Axe Files last week that with several Republican state parties in disarray, money could help Democrats get the better get-out-the-vote initiatives.

“And so we’re, you know, seven months from an election, and in critical battleground states, the Republican Party is in trouble, and money can solve that problem — if we had it,” Rove said. “And it can give the Democrats a decided advantage on the get-out-the-vote.”

While Republicans have struggled to get the same small-dollar donor figures they had during the previous election cycle, one thing that could help revive fundraising funds is Trump’s various legal battles.

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After Trump was booked at a Fulton County jail in August 2023, his campaign announced he had received $7.1 million in donations in the days following his mug shot being released.

With Trump being in and out of the courtroom in the months leading up to Nov. 5, his campaign will likely have more opportunities to use the prosecutions against him to garner donations. The Washington Post reported that messages about the criminal trial are some of the most successful messages to get donors to give money.