Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee designed to support Democratic organizations, documented this fundraising milestone over a two-day period, based on information from Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Though not officially verified, the data allows insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of upcoming disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. Previously, the second-highest day for donations was on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to the surge in contributions on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform, has raised about $4.3 billion since its launch in late 2019.
“We’ve seen many individuals making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours!” ActBlue remarked in a statement on X, previously known as Twitter. “It’s incredibly encouraging to see new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement!”
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which formed a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, announced it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Democratic major contributors, including George and Alex Soros, have also thrown their backing behind her.
Biden’s past fundraising success was noteworthy following his loss during a televised debate against Trump on June 27, where he and his committees raised around $28 million in the ensuing days. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden amassed $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to a temporary crash of his campaign website. The aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised an additional $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.