Just a day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project, ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, reported this significant sum collected over the past two days. While this tally isn’t official and is based on ActBlue’s donation tracker since 2004, it illustrates the fundraising momentum ahead of upcoming required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations totaled $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising record for ActBlue in the 2024 cycle. The previous high for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as recorded by Murphy’s tracker.
This surge in contributions on Sunday pushed ActBlue’s total fundraising to $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion, based on data from OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that many new donors reported making their first contributions in the past 24 hours, highlighting the energizing effect of small-dollar donations on the grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, which has launched a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same 24-hour period.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign is poised to be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have shown their backing for Harris as well.
Biden’s previous fundraising peaks came after he faced a significant defeat from Trump during a televised debate on June 27, where Biden and his teams raised about $28 million in the following days. In the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, whereas Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million shortly after that ruling, which briefly overwhelmed Trump’s campaign website. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million during that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups accumulated $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups secured $431.2 million, according to reports. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.