Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he will not run for re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee and fundraising tool for Democratic organizations, reported this impressive donation figure over the past two days, according to a live tracker maintained by developer Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s extensive donation data since 2004, it illustrates the group’s fundraising performance ahead of mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors provided $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle through ActBlue. The previous record for donations was set on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate.
Thanks to this spike in donations on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has gathered approximately $4.3 billion in donations, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue commented on the surge, 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!”
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 within that same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman noted Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Notable Democratic benefactors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced his most successful fundraising days after losing a televised debate to Donald Trump on June 27, with about $28 million raised in the following days. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and associated groups collected $69 million in the aftermath of his conviction on May 30.
In a broader context, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million from April to June, while pro-Trump groups received $431.2 million during the same period. By the end of June, Biden reported having $281 million on hand, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.