Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats generated $100 million in donations via their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee that facilitates fundraising for Democratic groups, reported this amount over two days. While the total is not officially verified, as it originates from ActBlue’s own comprehensive tracker established in 2004, it presents a snapshot of Democratic fundraising efforts ahead of mandatory disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate featuring Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracker.
The donations from Sunday contributed to ActBlue surpassing $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
“We’ve heard from many individuals who made their first donation in the past 24 hours!” ActBlue shared in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s inspiring to witness new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Future Forward, a super PAC affiliated with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the forthcoming Democratic nominee, informed Agence France-Presse that it raised over $160,000 within the same 24-hour period.
Evercore founder Roger Altman assured on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also backed Harris.
Previously, Biden saw significant fundraising success immediately following a notable defeat against former President Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, when his campaign raised around $28 million between that day and June 28, according to a New York Times analysis.
Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump being convicted 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 donations. A super PAC aligned with him, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, groups supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while those backing Trump collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.