Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from contributors via their main fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic initiatives, reported this sum accumulated over just two days, based on a live tracking tool created by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. Although these figures are unofficial and built on ActBlue’s donation tracker since 2004, they offer insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of upcoming financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the current election cycle. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate.
The influx of donations on Sunday allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, a Republican counterpart launched in late 2019, has garnered approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue commented on social media, stating, “We’ve seen many individuals say they made their first-ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s incredibly motivating to witness new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, secured $150 million in fresh commitments from prominent donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. The group Swing Left, which initiated a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, claimed to have raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and affirmed his support. Notable Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also endorsed Harris.
Historically, some of Biden’s best fundraising days followed significant events, including his defeat by Trump during a debate on June 27, which netted him around $28 million within a day. Biden also raised $19.2 million following Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts. Conversely, Trump and his affiliated groups generated $69 million from May 30 to May 31, which temporarily overwhelmed Trump’s campaign website. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised an additional $70 million during that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million. By June’s end, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.