Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic organizations, reported that total over the last two days via a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although the amount isn’t officially verified, it reflects ActBlue’s fundraising performance ahead of any mandated disclosures.
On Sunday, donors contributed $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the largest fundraising day of the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The second-largest fundraising day in the platform’s recent history occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s data.
As a result of Sunday’s donation boost, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart WinRed, which started operations in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
“We’ve heard from many people saying they made their first donation in the last 24 hours!” ActBlue tweeted on Monday. “It’s inspiring to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, the Biden-aligned super PAC Future Forward secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours. Additionally, Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 within a day for supporting the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred after he was defeated by Donald Trump during a debate on June 27, where his committees raised about $28 million in the following 24 hours, as analyzed by The New York Times.
Biden also raised $19.2 million after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his supporting groups amassed $69 million from May 30 to May 31 following his conviction. This surge of donations temporarily crashed Trump’s campaign website, and his affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.