Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not be seeking re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million through its primary fundraising platform. ActBlue, a political action committee central to Democratic fundraising efforts, documented this significant fundraising achievement over the last two days, utilizing a live tracker established by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. While this figure is not officially sanctioned and is based on ActBlue’s internal tracker since its inception in 2004, it showcases the group’s fundraising capabilities ahead of any mandated disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a record-breaking fundraising day for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. The previous high for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the surge in donations this past Sunday, ActBlue achieved a milestone of raising $14 billion since its establishment nearly two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart that began operations in 2019, has collected around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
“We’ve seen countless individuals reporting their first donations in the last 24 hours!” ActBlue expressed in a statement on X, previously Twitter, on Monday. “It’s incredibly inspiring to see new small-dollar donors become part of the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Similarly, Swing Left, which recently initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated to Agence France-Presse that it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, remarked on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also offered their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most profitable fundraising days occurred shortly after he was decisively beaten by Trump during a televised debate on June 27. Biden and his committees raised around $28 million within a day following that debate, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the subsequent days. In contrast, Trump and his associated organizations collected $69 million between May 30 and May 31, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million during that month.
From April to June of this year, pro-Biden organizations amassed $332.4 million, while those supporting Trump raked in $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden held $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.