Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats utilized their primary fundraising platform to generate $100 million from donors.
ActBlue, the political action committee focused on fundraising for Democratic entities, recorded this amount over the past two days, according to a tracking tool developed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While the figure is not officially verified — as it relies on ActBlue’s comprehensive donation records since 2004 — it gives insight into the recent fundraising achievements ahead of formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, $66.9 million was raised to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, making it the largest single-day fundraising effort for the 2024 campaign cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest day in recent memory occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first debate between Biden and Trump, as noted by Murphy.
Thanks to this surge of contributions, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the fundraising platform for Republicans that was launched in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
In a statement on the platform X, previously known as Twitter, ActBlue noted, “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!”
Following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major benefactors within 24 hours. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and announced his support for her candidacy. Democratic major donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their support for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s fundraising peaked after he faced a notable defeat against Trump during a televised debate on June 27, raising approximately $28 million from that day until June 28, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
In the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden garnered $19.2 million, while Trump and his associated groups raised $69 million between May 30 and May 31, with the influx of donors briefly crashing Trump’s campaign website. The super PAC aligned with Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., reported raising $70 million during that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, compared to pro-Trump groups which collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.