Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that serves Democratic organizations, recorded this amount over the past two days, according to a live tracker created by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this tally is not official, as it is based on ActBlue’s internal data since its establishment in 2004, it offers insights into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday, donations reached $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue during the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed previous records, with the second-highest day being September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump participated in their first debate.
With the surge in donations, ActBlue announced it has surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm over the influx of new, small-dollar donors, stating, “We’ve seen 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!”
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly received $150 million in new commitments from major donors just 24 hours after his announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, announced it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, remarked that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Notable Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced strong fundraising days following his loss to Trump in a televised debate on June 27, raising approximately $28 million in the ensuing days. He also managed to collect $19.2 million shortly after Trump faced 34 felony charges. Trump’s affiliated groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to a temporary crash of his campaign website. Additionally, the Make America Great Again Inc. super PAC raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden held $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.