Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors using their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic entities, reported this substantial amount over a period of just two days. This data is sourced from a live tracker created by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Although these figures are unofficial and are based on ActBlue’s own records dating back to 2004, they offer insightful glimpses into the fundraising momentum just weeks before formal disclosures are due.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest single-day fundraising figure in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The influx of donations over the weekend pushed ActBlue’s total raised funds to $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican equivalent established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted on X (formerly Twitter) that many individuals mentioned making their first-ever donations within the last 24 hours, expressing excitement about the influx of new small-dollar donors joining their grassroots effort.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors just 24 hours after Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which established a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating it would be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also expressed backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s fundraising peaks occurred following a critical televised debate with Trump on June 27, where Biden and his affiliated committees raised approximately $28 million. In the wake of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his associated groups collected $69 million in the two days surrounding his conviction. Notably, that surge in donations temporarily crashed Trump’s campaign website. In comparison, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden organizations generated $332.4 million in funds, whereas pro-Trump organizations garnered $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden’s available funds totaled $281 million, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.