Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
The political action committee reported this figure over a period of two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial and drawn from ActBlue’s historical donation data since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s recent fundraising performance ahead of formal disclosure periods.
On Sunday alone, contributors raised $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the most significant fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 cycle. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump participated in their first debate.
Due to the donation surge on Sunday, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican equivalent established in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted a notable response from 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!”
Following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours. Swing Left, which has created a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and announced his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising days after debates, including a total of about $28 million raised from June 27 to June 28 following a confrontation with Trump. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million after Trump faced legal issues resulting in 34 felony counts. Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million between May 30 and May 31, leading to a temporary crash of his campaign website. In that same month, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. amassed $70 million.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump entities brought in $431.2 million, with Biden ending June holding $281 million against Trump’s $336.2 million.