Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democratic fundraising efforts surged, raising $100 million through its primary platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that facilitates donations for Democratic causes, reported this massive fundraising total over a two-day period, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Although this figure is not officially certified and is based on ActBlue’s tracking system, it offers a glimpse into their financial performance just weeks ahead of mandated disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising achievement for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for donations coincided with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
This spike in donations pushed ActBlue’s total fundraising since its inception two decades ago to $14 billion. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart established in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm about new contributors, stating that many made their first donations in the past 24 hours, which they described as an encouraging sign for grassroots support.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major donors within the first day following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which has initiated a fund for the upcoming Democratic nominee, also raised over $160,000 within the same 24-hour window.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, remarked on Monday that Harris’s campaign is expected to be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Notable Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, are also backing Harris.
Previously, since Biden’s strong defeat against Trump during a June debate, his fundraising activities had seen notable peaks; he raised approximately $28 million in the days following that debate. After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, Biden’s groups collected $19.2 million in the ensuing days, while Trump’s affiliates brought in $69 million between May 30 and May 31, overwhelming Trump’s campaign website temporarily. In that month, his aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised an additional $70 million.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations collected $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump entities raised $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in cash reserves compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.