Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to Democratic fundraising, recorded this impressive amount over just two days, according to a tracker managed by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. While the total is unofficial and relies on ActBlue’s comprehensive history of donations since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising activities ahead of any formal disclosures.
On Sunday, supporters contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle through ActBlue. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as noted by Murphy.
This fundraising boom helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm about the surge in contributions, stating that many individuals had made their first donations in the last 24 hours. The platform highlighted the excitement of new grassroots supporters joining the movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported receiving $150 million in new commitments from large donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, as per Politico. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign being “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also expressed their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s previous fundraising spikes occurred after significant events, such as the June 27 debate loss to Trump when his campaign raised around $28 million in the following days. Additionally, Biden reported raising $19.2 million in the wake of Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts—an event that also generated major fundraising success for Trump and his affiliated groups, with Trump’s campaign briefly experiencing a website crash due to the influx of donations.
Between April and June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups, as detailed by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds available, while Trump had $336.2 million.