Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised an impressive $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee that facilitates fundraising for Democratic groups, reported this significant amount collected over two days. Although this tally is not official and is based on ActBlue’s extensive donation records since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance in the lead-up to the upcoming disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations soared to $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 via ActBlue. The previous record was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
This remarkable surge helped ActBlue achieve a milestone, reaching $14 billion in funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which was established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
In a statement shared on X, formerly Twitter, ActBlue noted, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major donors within just 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which established a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
In the past, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred after substantial events, such as immediately following his loss to Trump during a June 27 televised debate, where he and his committees raised about $28 million in the subsequent days. Further, Biden collected $19.2 million shortly after Trump faced 34 felony charges, as Trump and affiliated groups raised $69 million between May 30 and May 31, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. The associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., also raised $70 million that month.
In the broader perspective from April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups totaled $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.