Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats garnered $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising site used by Democratic organizations, logged this impressive amount over a two-day period, as reported by a live tracker developed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. Though these figures are not officially confirmed, they offer insight into the fundraising efforts prior to any mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaled $66.9 million, coinciding with the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the largest single-day fundraising effort for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. The previous record for a similar event was on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With this financial spike on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart launched in late 2019, has accumulated around $4.3 billion in donations, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue remarked on X, previously known as Twitter, that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations within the past 24 hours, emphasizing the excitement of welcoming new grassroots supporters.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from prominent donors within a day of his announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Additionally, the group Swing Left, which was established to support the future Democratic nominee, claimed to have raised over $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed his belief that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also thrown their weight behind Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising gains immediately following his losses to Donald Trump in a televised debate on June 27, when he and his affiliates raised approximately $28 million from that day to June 28, according to a New York Times analysis.
Moreover, Biden collected $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. Trump and his supporting groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, evidently causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The super PAC aligned with Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that same month.
Between April and June, organizations supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while those backing Trump collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.