A website run by a political action committee (PAC) tied to soliciting donations for former Vice President Kamala Harris was abruptly shut down after reports surfaced that the leaders of the site used the fatal shooting of Minnesota Alex Pretti as a mechanism to convince donors to contribute money.
Multiple X accounts posted screenshots of a fundraising text message sent from a toll-free number Saturday beginning with the words, “Alex Pretti is the limit,” and calling on recipients to “Stand with us! Donate $50 for 200% MATCH.”
The message then appeared to link to a donation landing page for Democratic Youth Wave PAC hosted by leading Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue — which backed Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.
John Hagner, a Minneapolis-based partner at an analytics and polling company which supports Democratic candidates and left-wing causes, brought the fundraising message to attention on social media Saturday afternoon, leading to a viral campaign showcasing the donation messages.
Just hours after screenshots of the text went viral on social media, the link in the text led to a page which stated:
“This fundraiser is not currently accepting any donations.” It also included a link to the PAC’s website, which while live at the time, was not allowing contributions through its “donate” button. Democratic Youth Wave’s site was later taken down and its URL, at the time of publication, led to a Wix.com error page stating, “Looks like this domain isn’t connected to a website yet.”
In addition to soliciting $50 donations, the text message also urged Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to “END THE OPERATION,” appearing to back various Democrats’ calls to remove federal immigration enforcement agents from the North Star State.
Hagner viral message contained a caption of a screenshot of it reading: “If you work for an organization or consultant that had anything to do with this you need to quit your job today.”
Before the PAC scrubbed its website, the Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Democratic Youth Wave for comment and to clarify whether the donation link was changed after the fundraising text was sent. The contact form on the PAC’s website, however, appeared to have been broken at the time, according to an account from the Daily Caller.
If you work for an organization or consultant that had anything to do with this you need to quit your job today. pic.twitter.com/lzM6W4yyTh
— John Hagner (@JHagner) January 24, 2026
ActBlue’s X account responded to Hagner’s post about two hours after he had made it, stating it is “a tech platform” which does “not write or approve what campaigns and causes are sending.”
“But we hear you, please know our team is listening and is exploring ways to address exploitative practices,” ActBlue’s account wrote in its reply.
Hi @JHagner. ActBlue is a tech platform, so we do not write or approve what campaigns and causes are sending. But we hear you, please know our team is listening and is exploring ways to address exploitative practices.
— ActBlue (@actblue) January 24, 2026
ActBlue was uniquely tied to Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.
Open Secrets lists a total of $196,714 for Democratic Youth Wave’s “independent expenditures, communication costs and coordinated expenses” for the 2024 cycle, all for Harris’s failed presidential bid.
The PAC does not list any expenditures for any other election cycle dating back to 2000, according to Open Secrets.
An ActBlue spokesperson said in a statement that the platform had “immediately contacted” Democratic Youth Wave when it had become “aware of the text message exploiting Alex Pretti’s death.”
“The associated fundraising campaign is no longer active, and we are proactively refunding anyone who donated to it,” the spokesperson added. “When we say we are exploring options to prevent this kind of exploitation, we mean it. We are committed to ending this type of behavior on our platform.”
Reps for Harris did not issue a comment regarding its ties to ActBlue.