Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors using their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee that supports Democratic initiatives, noted this impressive fundraising feat over the past two days, as reported by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While not an official figure, this total, derived from ActBlue’s extensive donation tracker, offers insight into fundraising efforts weeks prior to required financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions surged to $66.9 million following the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day of the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest was recorded on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of the Sunday spike, ActBlue has now raised $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has gathered about $4.3 billion in total, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement over the increase in small-dollar donations, noting that many contributors reported making their first ever donations in the past day.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major donors within just 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Meanwhile, Swing Left, which is supporting the ultimate Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Prominent Democratic benefactors George and Alex Soros have also thrown their support behind Harris.
Previously, Biden’s peak fundraising days followed his defeat by Trump during a debate on June 27, when Biden and associated committees raised approximately $28 million in just 24 hours. Biden also raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges. In contrast, Trump and his allies amassed $69 million within a single day of his conviction, briefly overwhelming his campaign website. The PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million in that month alone.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, with Biden holding $281 million in funding compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.