Just one day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party attracted $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
This notable fundraising event took place via ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic initiatives. According to a live tracking system run by developer Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, this amount was raised over the past two days. While this figure is not official, as it stems from ActBlue’s comprehensive tracking of donations since 2004, it offers insight into the organization’s fundraising performance ahead of any mandatory disclosure reports.
On Sunday alone, donations reached $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, making it the most lucrative day for fundraising in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. This surpasses previous donation days, including the second-highest on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as noted by Murphy’s tracker.
The influx of donations on Sunday allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since it was established two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has collected around $4.3 billion to date, according to OpenSecrets.
In a statement on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, ActBlue highlighted the excitement surrounding a surge of first-time donors joining the movement, 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!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, disclosed that it raised over $160,000 in the same time frame.
Roger Altman, the founder of Evercore, expressed his belief on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and pledged his support. Major Democratic donors such as George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising peaked after he faced a notable defeat against former President Donald Trump during a debate on June 27, raising approximately $28 million in the aftermath. Furthermore, Biden garnered $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups saw a significant boost, raising $69 million within 24 hours after the conviction.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million in funds, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.