Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors using their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee focused on fundraising for Democratic initiatives, recorded this impressive total over the last two days, as per a live tracker by developer Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. Although this figure is unofficial and derived from ActBlue’s donation tracker since 2004, it illustrates the group’s fundraising effectiveness in the lead-up to anticipated disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising total in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. This day surpassed the previous peak on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate.
With Sunday’s funding surge, ActBlue surpassed a total of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent established in late 2019, reported approximately $4.3 billion in total donations, according to OpenSecrets.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, ActBlue noted a notable influx of first-time donors, expressing excitement over the growth of the grassroots movement. Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of his announcement and subsequent backing for Harris. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Significant Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also come forward to support Harris.
Previously, Biden’s notable fundraising occurred right after his defeat by former president Donald Trump during a debate on June 27, leading to approximately $28 million raised between that day and June 28. Additionally, Biden accumulated $19.2 million in the wake of Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliates managed to raise $69 million in a 24-hour span following this conviction, momentarily crashing Trump’s campaign website. The super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that same month.
From April to June, groups supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while those backing Trump garnered $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had a balance of $281 million in comparison to Trump’s $336.2 million.