Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic initiatives, recorded this impressive sum over the previous two days, as reported by Ryan Murphy, an analyst with The Marshall Project, using its own donation tracking system. While not an official figure, this estimate gives insight into the fundraising momentum just before any formal disclosures are released.
On Sunday alone, donations amounted to $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for fundraising in recent history was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Donald Trump.
Following the surge on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total donations raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the fundraising platform for Republicans that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue issued a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressing enthusiasm for the influx of donations, noting that many contributors reported making their first donation in the last 24 hours.
In addition to ActBlue’s achievements, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. The group Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 within 24 hours to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign is set to be “very well financed” and confirmed his backing. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also lent their support to Harris.
Biden’s tangible fundraising success in the past has typically coincided with key events, such as after he faced off against Trump during a televised debate on June 27, yielding about $28 million in donations. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million shortly after Trump was convicted on multiple felony counts, while Trump and his associated groups garnered $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to a temporary crash of his campaign website. In the month following, Trump’s aligned super PAC raised $70 million.
Between April and June, pro-Biden factions raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump entities collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden reported having $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.