One day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from contributors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic initiatives, recorded this amount over the last two days, based on a live tracker developed by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. Though unofficial, this total reflects ActBlue’s fundraising achievements prior to any required financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations reached $66.9 million with the kickoff of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single fundraising day for ActBlue during the 2024 election cycle. The previous highest daily fundraising record was set on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate.
With the donations from Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised about $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue reported a surge of new, small donors, 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, secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors in the 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed strong support for Harris, stating her campaign would be “very well financed.” High-profile Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also indicated their support for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s fundraising peaks occurred following his significant loss to Trump during a debate on June 27, when he and his committees raised about $28 million in the subsequent days. Biden also raised $19.2 million after Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups collected $69 million in the immediate aftermath of his conviction, even causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups accumulated $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.