Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through the ActBlue fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee designed for Democratic fundraising, tracked this amount over the last two days, as reported by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this sum is not officially verified, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of required disclosures. On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed the previous record set during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
Following the surge in donations, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion raised since its establishment two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent founded in late 2019, has garnered approximately $4.3 billion during its operation, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted an influx of new contributors, 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, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and Harris’s endorsement. Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed support for Harris, asserting her campaign would be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also shown their support for Harris.
In previous fundraising instances, Biden raised approximately $28 million shortly after being defeated by Trump in a June 27 debate. He also secured $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on felony charges. Trump and his supporters raised $69 million in the days after his conviction, causing a temporary crash of the campaign’s website. His affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.