Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic initiatives, reportedly collected this amount within a two-day period, according to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this figure is not officially confirmed and is based on ActBlue’s donation totals since 2004, it offers insight into recent fundraising performance ahead of mandatory financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million to mark the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the most successful day of fundraising in the current election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high for donations before this was on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as noted by Murphy’s tracker.
With the recent surge in contributions, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since it was established 20 years ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to data from OpenSecrets.
ActBlue highlighted the excitement among new donors, stating on X, formerly Twitter, that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations in the past 24 hours, illustrating the grassroots movement’s growth.
In a significant move, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated funding in support of the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same time frame.
On Monday, Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign financing, stating it will be “very well financed.” Notable Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also shown their support for Harris.
Previously, Biden had strong fundraising days after a televised debate loss to Trump on June 27, when he and his affiliated committees raised around $28 million in just over a day. Biden also garnered $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, with Trump and his allies raising $69 million in just two days following the conviction, leading to brief outages on Trump’s campaign website. His associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., generated $70 million that same month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million in funds available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.