Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democratic fundraising saw a significant boost, with donors contributing $100 million through ActBlue, the major fundraising platform for Democratic organizations.
The fundraising efforts over the past two days were noted by Ryan Murphy, who maintains a live tracker for The Marshall Project. This amount, while not officially confirmed, showcases the group’s impressive fundraising results ahead of the required disclosure filings.
On Sunday alone, an impressive $66.9 million was raised to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations in recent history was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The influx of donations has helped ActBlue reach a milestone of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has garnered approximately $4.3 billion in donations, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement over the new influx of small-dollar donors, stating on X, formerly Twitter, that many had made their first donations in the last 24 hours and highlighting the boost to grassroots support.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from significant donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Meanwhile, Swing Left, which is backing the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same 24-hour period.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, remarked on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed,” emphasizing his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also backed Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced robust fundraising just after being defeated by Trump during a televised debate on June 27, raising around $28 million between that day and the next. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million while Trump and his associated groups collected $69 million over a single day following his conviction, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. In May, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.