Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising tool for Democratic entities, reported this figure over a two-day period, as tracked by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this information is not official and is based on ActBlue’s own donation metrics since 2004, it offers insight into the organization’s fundraising performance prior to any mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the most successful fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Due to the strong influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed a total of $14 billion in cash raised since its inception 20 years ago. In contrast, WinRed, the fundraising platform for Republicans that began operations in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue expressed excitement on social media about the recent contributions, noting that many donors stated they made their first-ever donations in the past 24 hours, emphasizing the growth of their grassroots movement.
In addition to ActBlue’s success, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which established a fund backing the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, remarked that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and offered his support. Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s most lucrative fundraising period occurred after a televised debate on June 27, when he faced a substantial defeat against former President Donald Trump. Following that event, Biden and his affiliated committees amassed about $28 million in just over a day.
In the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million. During that same time frame, Trump and his associated groups garnered $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website due to the surge in donations. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., also raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations collected $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.