[2][3] Republican leadership began discussing the possibility of building a competitor to ActBlue within days of the 2018 midterm results.

[7] WinRed merged Revv, a Republican payment processing firm founded in December 2014 by Gerrit Lansing, and DataTrust, the party's voter data repository.

[3] In April 2020, the platform expanded from its previous representation of only federal-level candidates and opened support to state- and local-level races.

[11][12] When donations pass through a conduit such as WinRed or ActBlue donors names and contributions are itemized and reported and made publicly available on the Internet.

[13][15] In 2024 the Institute for Free Speech sued the FEC over the discrepancy whereby small donors utilizing conduits WinRed or ActBlue are automatically made public but same-sized direct donations are not.

Others expressed concern about profits, noting that it was unclear who stood to gain from use of the service and comparing the higher fees of WinRed to those of competitors.

[22] In 2022, a judge gave permission for continuing an investigation by several state attorneys general into WinRed's fundraising practices.

[24] In April 2023, The New York Times reported that WinRed was proposing to increase transaction fees on donations made through its site, citing a decline in contributions the previous year, but the plan had stalled over opposition from Republican leaders.

[25] In November 2023, the conservative O'Keefe Media Group released a video purporting to question a donor as to the authenticity of some donations listed on the Federal Election Commission's website that were made with their own personal details.