Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democratic fundraising efforts surged, generating $100 million from donors through its primary platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee that supports Democratic groups, recorded this impressive total over the last two days, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer with The Marshall Project. While this figure is not official and reflects ActBlue’s own tracking mechanisms since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of upcoming mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday, a significant portion of the donations, amounting to $66.9 million, was directed toward the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This day outpaced the previous notable fundraising surge on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate featuring Biden and Trump.
This recent wave of contributions helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion in total donations raised since its inception. In contrast, WinRed, the fundraising platform for Republicans established in late 2019, has amassed approximately $4.3 billion during the same timeframe.
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), ActBlue highlighted a wave of new small-dollar donors, noting, “We’ve seen many people making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new supporters joining the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported securing $150 million in commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement supporting Harris. Another group, Swing Left, stated it raised over $160,000 in a similar timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign would be well-funded and committed his support to her. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising peaks have occurred following major political events. For instance, after Biden was decisively beaten by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, he and his committees raised about $28 million in the following days. Furthermore, Biden raised $19.2 million after Trump’s conviction on multiple felony charges, while Trump and his affiliated groups collected $69 million in the aftermath, briefly overwhelming his campaign website due to the influx of donations.
Pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million between April and June, whereas pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million in the same period, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.