Just a day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee focused on fundraising for Democratic groups, reported this impressive total over a two-day span, based on a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. Although not an official count, this figure reflects the organization’s fundraising performance before any required financial disclosures are made.
On Sunday alone, contributions to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign reached $66.9 million, marking the most significant fundraising day for ActBlue in the lead-up to the 2024 election cycle. The previous high for a single day of donations was on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The surge in donations on Sunday pushed ActBlue past a remarkable milestone of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. Meanwhile, WinRed, the Republican equivalent established in late 2019, has garnered approximately $4.3 billion in contributions.
ActBlue commented on the wave of new 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!”
Following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within a day. Additionally, Swing Left, which aims to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, vowing to support her and asserting that her campaign would be “very well financed.” Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their support for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced a notable fundraising boost immediately following a televised debate loss to Trump on June 27, raising around $28 million in the subsequent days. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million after Trump was convicted on 34 felony charges, with Trump and his affiliated groups bringing in $69 million in the days following his conviction. Trump’s campaign website was temporarily overwhelmed by traffic due to the influx of donations. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., also raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million while pro-Trump groups amassed $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had approximately $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.