Just one day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not pursue re-election, Democratic donors contributed $100 million through the ActBlue fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee designed to support Democratic initiatives, reported this figure over a span of two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial and sourced from ActBlue’s historical donation data since 2004, it offers insight into the fundraising success occurring just weeks before upcoming financial disclosures.
On Sunday, supporters gave $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a record fundraising day for ActBlue within the 2024 election cycle. The previous highest fundraising day happened on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of the donations received on Sunday, ActBlue achieved a cumulative total of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the fundraising counterpart for Republicans, established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue noted a surge of first-time donors when it stated, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours of his announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, aiming to back the eventual Democratic nominee, also disclosed that it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating it will be “very well financed” and announced his personal support. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, also pledged their backing to Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising peaks occurred following significant events, including a major debate loss to Trump on June 27, where he and his committees raised about $28 million shortly thereafter. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his aligned groups benefited from a $69 million influx in donations from May 30 to May 31, which caused a temporary crash of his campaign website.
In terms of financial performance, pro-Biden groups tallied $332.4 million in fundraising between April and June, whereas pro-Trump groups reported $431.2 million. By June’s end, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.