Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, reported this significant amount over a two-day period, as documented by Ryan Murphy, a developer for The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial and relies on ActBlue’s extensive donation tracker established in 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of any required financial disclosures.
On Sunday, donations surged to $66.9 million to support the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest fundraising day in recent history occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s records.
With the influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that was established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, as noted by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue announced on social media that they had seen numerous first-time donors contributing in the past 24 hours, emphasizing the motivation brought by new small-dollar supporters joining the grassroots effort.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising success after being bested by Trump during a televised debate on June 27, where he and affiliated committees raised around $28 million within a day. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the days that followed. In contrast, Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The super PAC allied with him, Make America Great Again Inc., also raised $70 million that same month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups accumulated $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.