Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democratic fundraising saw a significant boost, with $100 million raised from donors via its primary platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising tool for Democratic organizations, reported this figure over a two-day span, as tracked by Ryan Murphy, a developer affiliated with The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s extensive donation records from 2004 onward, it offers insight into the group’s recent fundraising successes ahead of required financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s data.
The surge in contributions on Sunday also allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, as per OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on X, previously known as Twitter, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
In addition to individual donations, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Another group, Swing Left, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Notable Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also lent their backing to Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising days after facing former President Donald Trump in a televised debate on June 27, where he and his committees raised around $28 million within 24 hours. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and associated groups garnered $69 million in the day following his conviction on May 30. This surge caused a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website, and an allied super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups attracted $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in cash on hand, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.