Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, logged this significant amount over the past two days, according to a real-time tracker maintained by developer Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While the figure is not official and is based on ActBlue’s comprehensive donation data since 2004, it gives insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of the necessary financial disclosures.
On Sunday, donations reached $66.9 million following the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle recorded by ActBlue. The previous high point occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The remarkable influx of donations allowed ActBlue to surpass a total of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican equivalent that began operations in late 2019, has amassed around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted on X, formerly Twitter, that many new donors reported making their first contributions in the last 24 hours. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” the organization stated.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and subsequent support for Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, stated that it collected more than $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating it will be “very well financed” and pledged his support. Additionally, Democratic heavyweights George and Alex Soros have also endorsed Harris.
Biden’s previous notable fundraising occurred soon after being outperformed by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, during which he and his committees raised approximately $28 million. After Trump faced 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million while Trump and affiliated groups collected $69 million in the days following. Trump’s campaign website briefly crashed due to the surge of donations, and his associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden initiatives raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups gathered $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. As of the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.