Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic groups, recorded this impressive total over the previous two days. While the figure is not officially verified and is based on ActBlue’s extensive donation record since 2004, it highlights significant fundraising activity ahead of the formal disclosure deadlines.
On the previous Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, representing the most lucrative day in the 2024 fundraising cycle for ActBlue. To put this in context, the second-highest day for donations in recent history occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The surge in funding on Sunday helped ActBlue reach an impressive $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has gathered around $4.3 billion during its operation, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue highlighted the influx of new donors through a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressing excitement about many people making their first-ever contributions in the past 24 hours.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, collected $150 million in new commitments from significant donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. The organization Swing Left revealed that it raised over $160,000 within the same 24-hour period to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign is expected to be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Furthermore, notable Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred right after a televised debate with Trump on June 27, during which Biden’s committees raised approximately $28 million. Biden also raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. From May 30 to May 31, Trump and his associated groups raised $69 million, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website due to the influx of donors. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. garnered $70 million that same month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups brought in $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.