Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee designed for Democratic fundraising, reported this amount over a two-day period, based on a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this figure is unofficial and derived from ActBlue’s comprehensive donation tracker established in 2004, it provides insights into the organization’s fundraising performance ahead of the necessary disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors provided $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day total for donations in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest day for donations in recent memory occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s data.
As a result of the donation surge on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart which began operations in late 2019, has collected roughly $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that there was a surge of first-time donors contributing in the last 24 hours, expressing excitement about the grassroots movement gaining new small-dollar supporters.
Future Forward, a super PAC associated with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of his announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has set up a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also backed Harris.
Biden previously experienced his best fundraising days right after being outperformed by Trump during a televised debate on June 27, which generated approximately $28 million in donations from that day through June 28, according to analysis by the New York Times.
In the wake of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden garnered $19.2 million in donations. In contrast, Trump and his supporting groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31 after his conviction, leading to a temporary crash of his campaign website. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., amassed $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.