Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee and fundraising hub for Democratic organizations, recorded this amount over two days, based on a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial and relies on ActBlue’s internal mega-tracker of donations accumulated since 2004, it sheds light on fundraising performance ahead of the required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the most significant fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest fundraising day in recent times was September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracker.
Following the surge in donations on Sunday, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion in cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, previously known as Twitter, that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting the excitement of new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots effort.
Similarly, 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 endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
On Monday, Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in the financial backing for Harris’s campaign and pledged his support. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their support for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising success after being bested by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, when he and his committees raised approximately $28 million in the following days, as per a New York Times analysis.
Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the days after the announcement. In contrast, Trump and his aligned groups amassed $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. also reported raising $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.