Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats generated $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising tool for Democratic organizations, recorded this amount over the last two days. While this figure is not official, as it is based on ActBlue’s own tracking of donations since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of any required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest recorded day for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the increased donations on Sunday, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart that began in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue stated on X, previously known as Twitter, on Monday afternoon, “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!”
The Biden-aligned super PAC Future Forward reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left announced that it raised more than $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed his belief on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Biden’s strongest fundraising days prior to this came after he experienced a notable defeat against Trump in a televised debate on June 27, raising around $28 million from that day to June 28. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his associated groups amassed $69 million from May 30 to May 31. This surge of support caused a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website, and his aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million at his disposal compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.