Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform. ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic organizations, reported this significant amount collected over the past two days, based on a tracking system managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. This figure provides insight into the fundraising performance before any official disclosures are made.
On Sunday, donations totaled $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle on ActBlue. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the recent surge in donations, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart that began in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue noted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that many people reported making their first donation in the last 24 hours, highlighting the enthusiasm of new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
In addition, the super PAC Future Forward, aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left also announced it collected over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and pledged his support. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising boosts after facing off against Trump in a televised debate on June 27, where his campaign and committees raised approximately $28 million in a short span. After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, Biden garnered $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups collectively raised $69 million immediately following his conviction, briefly causing a crash of Trump’s campaign website. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million raised by pro-Trump entities, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, while Trump had $336.2 million.