Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, reported this figure over the past two days, as logged by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Although the total is unofficial and relies on ActBlue’s tracking system, it indicates strong fundraising momentum weeks before formal disclosures are due.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most successful fundraising day so far in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous record was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the recent influx of contributions, ActBlue has achieved $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception 20 years ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted a surge in new contributors, stating via social media, “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!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from prominent donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement endorsing Harris, according to Politico. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign is expected to be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Notable Democratic mega-donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Previously, Biden’s fundraising efforts were notably strong after he faced a setback against Donald Trump during a debate on June 27, raising around $28 million in the following days. He also raised $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s criminal conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump’s campaign brought in $69 million during that period, briefly crashing his campaign website. In a super PAC aligned with Trump, $70 million was raised that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.