Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through their main fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, recorded this substantial amount over the last two days, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this figure is not official and is based on ActBlue’s mega-tracker of donations since 2004, it offers insights into the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of formal disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday alone, donors generously contributed $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a record day for ActBlue’s fundraising in the 2024 election cycle. The previous best day for contributions occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of this donation surge, ActBlue reached $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart WinRed, which began operations in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue shared on X, previously known as Twitter, that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours, underscoring the influx of new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
Furthermore, Future Forward, a super PAC associated with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which has established a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 within a day.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed,” pledging his support. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Biden’s previous significant fundraising days occurred after he faced a notable defeat during a televised debate against former President Donald Trump on June 27. Biden and his committees amassed around $28 million between that day and June 28, according to a New York Times analysis.
In the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million from his conviction on May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. The super PAC aligned with him, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.