Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee that aids Democratic fundraising, recorded this amount over the prior two days. Although these figures are unofficial and based on ActBlue’s comprehensive tracker established in 2004, they offer insights into the organization’s fundraising performance prior to the formal disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday alone, contributors provided $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most significant fundraising day for ActBlue in the current election cycle. The previous high for donations in recent timelines was on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The surge in donations on Sunday enabled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on X, previously known as Twitter, on Monday, noting that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations within the past 24 hours. “It’s incredibly motivating to witness new small-dollar donors joining our grassroots movement!” they stated.
Following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major donors within just 24 hours. 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 would be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Previously, Biden’s most successful fundraising periods occurred right after he faced a significant defeat against former President Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, raising about $28 million within a day following that event, according to a New York Times analysis.
Biden also garnered $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump being convicted on 34 felony counts. In that same period, Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to temporary crashes on Trump’s campaign website due to the influx of donations. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while those supporting Trump amassed $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.