Just one day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for re-election, Democrats secured $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising avenue for Democratic organizations, recorded this amount over a span of two days, as revealed by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Although this tally is not official and is based on ActBlue’s mega-tracker of donations since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of any mandated disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors provided $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking ActBlue’s highest fundraising day for the 2024 election cycle. The second-largest day for contributions in recent history was September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to this significant inflow of contributions on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion since its launch, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue highlighted the excitement of 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 relation to Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within 24 hours. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also endorsed Harris.
Previously, Biden’s notable fundraising spikes occurred right after he faced off against former President Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, raising around $28 million between that day and June 28, as per a New York Times analysis.
In the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his associated groups collected $69 million from May 30 to May 31. This surge of donations temporarily caused Trump’s campaign website to crash. Additionally, the super PAC aligned with Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations amassed $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.