Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee and fundraising resource for Democratic organizations, reported this amount over a two-day period, according to a live tracker set up by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. Though this total is unofficial and relies on ActBlue’s own tracking of contributions dating back to 2004, it gives an insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of forthcoming disclosures.
On the day of Biden’s announcement, donors contributed an impressive $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. This surpasses earlier fundraising efforts recorded during notable events, such as the Biden-Trump debate on September 30, 2020.
Due to the surge in donations, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart launched in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion so far.
ActBlue highlighted the surge in new donors, 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 addition, Future Forward, a Biden-aligned super PAC, reported securing $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement, along with his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has set up a fund in support of 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 would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Notable Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing for Harris.
Earlier, Biden had notable fundraising days following public debates and significant political events. After a debate loss to Trump on June 27, Biden’s campaign raised about $28 million within a day. Similarly, after Trump faced legal challenges, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups accumulated $69 million during a surge of donations. This influx caused a temporary shutdown of Trump’s campaign website. An affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., also raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups brought in $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, leading to Biden having $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.