Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from various donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic initiatives, reported this significant amount over a two-day period, according to a live tracker created by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. While these figures are not officially verified, they reflect ActBlue’s extensive fundraising efforts ahead of the upcoming required financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign totaled $66.9 million, making it the largest fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high for recent donations occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump participated in their first debate, as noted by Murphy.
As a result of the recent influx of funding, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, which serves as the fundraising platform for Republicans and was launched in late 2019, has garnered approximately $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue commented on social media, noting that many new donors made their first-ever contributions in the past 24 hours, highlighting the excitement around the grassroots movement.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in commitments from major contributors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which created a fund to support the Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating that it would be “very well financed,” and mentioned his support for her candidacy. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Biden’s previous notable fundraising days followed a challenging debate against Donald Trump on June 27, where he and his committees raised about $28 million in just over a day. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million shortly after Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. In contrast, Trump and his supporters collected $69 million from May 30 to May 31, with the rush of donations causing a brief crash of his campaign website. The 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 gathered $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.