Just one day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not pursue re-election, Democrats saw a significant fundraising boost, raising $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic efforts, reported this amount over a two-day period via a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this figure is not officially recorded, it is based on ActBlue’s extensive tracking of donations since 2004, offering insight into fundraising figures ahead of the upcoming disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday, supporters donated $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The spike in donations on Sunday pushed ActBlue’s total fundraising to $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on X, formerly Twitter, 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!”
In another development, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 within a day of the announcement.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, remarked that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and indicated his support. Democratic heavyweight donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden experienced notable fundraising episodes following his debates with Donald Trump. After a challenging debate on June 27, he and his committees raised about $28 million by the next day. Following Trump’s conviction on felony charges, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million during the same timeframe, leading to temporary issues on Trump’s campaign website. Trump’s affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million during that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations garnered $332.4 million, while pro-Trump factions amassed $431.2 million. As of the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.