OLYMPIA, Wash. — Supporters of same-sex marriage in Washington state announced Monday they had raised more than $952,000 in June, bringing total contributions to more than $2 million in its campaign to uphold the state’s new marriage equality law, which is on hold pending the outcome of a November ballot measure.
Washington United for Marriage (WUM), the broad coalition working to defend the bipartisan marriage law, said the campaign contributions were driven in large part by new in-state donors, and represented the highest monthly intake for the campaign.
At the same time, WUM said it now has more than 1,000 volunteers actively working to approve Referendum 74, the ballot question that will ask voters to uphold or reject the state’s recently passed law legalizing same-sex marriage.
With 90 percent of June’s contributors hailing from Washington State, WUM’s campaign manager Zach Silk said the final numbers demonstrate the passion and intensity across the state to protect the new law.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
The month’s tally is particularly significant given that June signaled the start of the campaign when the state certified opponents’ signatures and officially placed Referendum 74 on November’s ballot.
“With more than 4200 individual donors in a single month, it’s clear that people in Washington do not want this law overturned and believe strongly that everyone should be able to marry the person they love,” said Silk.
“We are so grateful to those who understand that money in the door now enables us to build a winning campaign that protects marriage by approving Referendum 74 in November.”
Among the donations were $100,000 each from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates.
Opponents of the marriage equality law — Preserve Marriage Washington, which collected the signatures to put R-74 on the ballot — raised about $135,000, according to the most recent numbers with the Public Disclosure Commission, though it hasn’t yet submitted totals for June.
