Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party generated $100 million from contributors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that facilitates fundraising for Democratic organizations, reported this amount over the past two days, as indicated by a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer associated with The Marshall Project. Although this figure is unofficial and comes from ActBlue’s donation tracking system established in 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance weeks ahead of scheduled disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous top donation day occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as per Murphy’s tracker.
This influx of donations on Sunday enabled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted, “We’ve seen numerous individuals stating they made their first donation in the past 24 hours!” in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s incredibly inspiring to observe new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement!”
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 Harris’s subsequent endorsement, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the future Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same 24-hour timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, commented on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their support for Harris.
Biden’s highest previous fundraising days emerged after a debate loss to Donald Trump on June 27. At that time, Biden and his committees raised about $28 million within a two-day span, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Post Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million within days, while Trump and his related groups collected $69 million from the day of his indictment, May 30, to May 31. This surge in contributions briefly overloaded Trump’s campaign website. An affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., also raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden entities raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, reported The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had a fund of $281 million, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.